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paptisit  ISorlb  Alliance 


SECOND  CONGRESS 

Philadelphia,  June  19-25,  1911 


l^ecorb  of  ^roceebings 

PUBLISHED    UNDER    THE    AUSPICES    OF    THE 
PHILADELPHIA  COMMITTEE 


^fjilabtlpbta,  ^a..  ®.  S».  a. 
•Prin/ec/  6y  HARPER  &  BROTHER  COMPANY 

For  /Ae 

PHILADELPHIA   COMMITTEE 


91 


FOREWORD. 


The  second  congress  of  the  Baptist  Wiorld  Alliance  held  in  Philadel- 
phia, June  19-25,  1911,  was  a  worthy  successor  of  that  held  in  London 
six  years  before.  Indeed  it  marked  that  advance  which  the  projectors 
of  the  enterprise  hoped  for,  but  perhaps  hardly  dared  expect.  In  intel- 
lectual grasp,  in  clearness  of  vision,  in  felicity  and  strength  of  state- 
ment, in  apprehension  of  the  times  to  which  it  had  come,  and  in  the 
manifest  consciousness  of  mastery,  of  power,  it  was  at  least  the  equal  of 
its  predecessor.  In  enthusiasm,  in  attendance,  in  the  universality  of  its 
representation,  and  in  the  projection  of  its  thought  and  plan  into  the 
future  it  was  its  superior.  None  of  those  present  on  Monday  after- 
noon, or  at  the  roll-call  of  nations,  or  when  Doctor  Clifford  gave  his 
masterly  address,  or  who  followed  with  the  different  speakers  the  series 
through  with  scarce  diminishing  attendance  even  to  the  end  will  be 
likely  to  question  this  statement.  It  was  a  gathering  of  Baptists  such 
as  had  never  taken  place  before,  such  as  perhaps  will  be  long  in  taking 
place  again.  Indeed  it  was  a  religious  gathering  that  has  been  rarely 
equalled  in  days  past,  and  if  one  were  inclined  to  assume  the  role  of  the 
prophet  he  might  say  would  be  rarely  equalled  in  the  days  to  come. 

But  those  who  could  attend  in  person  and  gather  inspiration  by  direct 
impact  were  but  a  small  part  of  those  who  must  stand  at  a  distance  and 
wait  for  tidings  of  the  meetings.  And  these  are  no  less  interested  than 
were  they.  To  them  this  volume  will  come  as  a  welcome  visitor.  It  con- 
tains all  the  addresses  and  sermons  the  Committee  has  been  able  to 
secure.  Some  were  not  written  and  these  were  obtained  by  steno- 
graphic report.  All  the  discussions,  likewise,  have  been  embodied.  The 
portraits  of  most  of  the  speakers  and  officers  are  given  as  in  the  preced- 
ing volume  and  where  there  is  failure  it  is  because  the  photograph 
could  not  be  secured.  This  is  a  pleasing  feature  of  these  publications. 
We  get  not  only  what  was  done,  but  we  see  also  who  did  it.  On  behalf 
of  the  General  Committee  we  extend  thanks  to  all  who  have  contributed 
to  make  the  volume  what  it  is.  "We  do  not  specialize  but  leave  to  each 
the  selection  of  his  or  her  portion. 

Nay,  we  venture  to  extend  the  area  of  appreciation  to  include  all  who 
aided  to  make  the  occasion  what  it  was.  Never  had  principals  more 
willing  helpers,  never  had  occasion  principals  more  willing  to  serve.  Nor 
can  we  refrain  from  words  of  praise  for  those  who  came  to  us.  Come 
from  where  they  might,  from  Bohemia  or  Sweden,  Russia  or  Norway, 
France  or  Germany,  England.  Canada,  or  the  United  States,  they  were 
Christian  men  and  women.  There  were  crowds  but  no  disorder.  There 
were  police  in  evidence  but  no  arrests.    The  many  thousands  were  worthy 


of  the  welcome  emblazoned  on  the  City  Hall,  and  they  have  left  behind 
in  our  homes  and  our  churches  a  benediction.  If  to  any  this  seem  too 
intensely  personal  a  note  for  a  Foreword,  let  it  be  replied  that  it  is  due, 
and  that  it  is  the  personal  element  anywhere  that  gives  most  of  worth. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  at  close  editing  of  the  Proceedings,  al- 
though there  has  been  effort  to  secure  a  degree  of  uniformity  in  minor 
matters.  The  lists  of  Committees  are  included,  but  those  of  the  dele- 
gates and  visitors  are  omitted.  The  number  of  registrations  was  so 
great  and  the  condition  of  the  cards  such  as  to  make  this  task  too  for- 
midable to  be  undertaken.* 

And  now  what  of  it  all?  The  great  Temple  so  nobly  adapted  to  its 
purpose  and  so  genei'ously  placed  at  our  disposal  has  resumed  its  noiTual 
functions.  The  m^^ltitude  from  abroad  has  returned  to  its  homes.  The 
hiirry  and  the  bustle  has  ceased.  What  of  it  all  ?  Well  this  in  part :  We 
have  had  a  new  view  of  the  imperativeness  of  religious  conviction.  Some 
of  those  we  saw  and  heard  have  been  found  willing  to  suffer  for  Jesus' 
sake.  Imprisonment  and  stripes  have  not  daunted  them.  It  has  been 
Avorth  something  to  see  men  who  hold  spiritual  verities  so  worthful.  We 
have  learned  anew,  likewise,  that  we  are  one  as  a  denomination.  Even 
an  intense  canvass  for  a  presiding  ofiBcer  could  not  divide  us. 
We  are  one,  not  by  any  external  authority  or  formal  bonds,  but 
by  a  common  spirit.  And  there  is  more  of  it  than  this:  We 
seem  to  have  come  to  the  Kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this.  It  is  the 
era  of  the  people.  Democracy  is  in  the  air.  Despotism  at  all  points  is 
feeling  its  breath.  It  must  feel  it  more  and  more,  and  it  is  our  mission 
to  make  it  feel  it  more.  We  are  going  to  plan ;  we  are  going  to  work  for 
this,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  nothing  on  earth  more  demo- 
cratic than  the  Baptist  denomination.  There  is  nothing,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  recognizes  the  sovereignty  of  Jesus  Christ  more  than  it.  And 
so  reaching  out  to  the  people  on  the  one  side,  as  one  with  them,  and  on 
the  other  reaching  up  to  the  King  loyal  to  Him,  we  may  be  a  mediating 
power  between  the  two  and  so  help  to  bring  his  Kingdom  to  its  fulness. 
Under  the  English  stalwart  Doctor  Clifford  we  did  much.  Under  the 
active  American  leader  Doctor  MacArthur  we  hope  to  do  more.  May 
the  Alliance  help  in  this  and  may  this  volume  help  the  Alliance. 

PHILIP  L.  JONES. 
Chairman  Publications  Committee. 
Philadelphia,  July  4,  1911. 


*The  volume  of  Proceedings  is  sold  at  the  uniform  price  of  $1.15.  The  aim  has 
been  to  make  it  a  correct  abstract  of  the  transactions  of  the  Congress.  If  there  is 
failure  here  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  lack  of  a  Recording  Secretary.  This  would 
seem  to  be  a  defect  that  should  be  corrected  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Alliance. 

vi 


THE  PHILADELPHIA  BADGE 

Designed  by 

NELSON  LEE  SMITH 


THE   LOCAL   COMMITTEES. 


GENERAL  COMMITTEE. 


Adams,  Rev.  C.  A. 
Adams,  Rev.  G.  D. 
Alf,  Rev.  G.  A. 
Allan,  J.  L. 
Applegarth,  Rev.  A.  C. 
Ayer,  F.  W. 
Bailey,  W.  A. 
Barras,   Rev.   H.   W. 
Behrens,  Rev.  J.  F. 
Blood,  Edward. 
Booker,  Rev.  J.  G. 
Buell,  Rev.  H.  A. 
Burchett,  Rev.  G.  J. 
Butterworth,  A.  W. 
Butterworth,  James. 
Calder,  Rev.  W.  C. 
Campbell,  A.  W. 
Champion,   Rev.   J.   B. 
Charles,  Rev.  G.  H. 
Chiera,   Rev.   Alberto. 
Clouser,  Rev.  G.  B.  M. 
Conner,  Rev.  William. 
Conwell,  Rev.  R.  H. 
Cooper,   Rev.   George. 
Cope,  J.  B. 
Cope,   Rev.   W.   D. 
Cox,  Walter. 
Craig,  W.  B. 
Crozer,  George  K. 
Crozer,  John   P. 
Crozer,  Robert  H. 
Darmon,  S.  S. 
Davis,  J.  W. 


DeSanno,   A.   P. 
Dox,  Rev.  Rutger. 
Drew,  Rev.   G.   W. 
Dulitz,  Rev.  N. 
Dutton,  L.  R. 
Earle,  Sydney. 
Estabrook,  G.  L. 
Evans,  G.  G. 
Evans,  Rev.  M.  G. 
Eynon,  T.  M. 
Farr,  Rev.  F.  W. 
Ferris,  Rev.  G.  H. 
Fornev,  Rev.  W.  B. 
Fox,  G.  P. 
Fralev,  E.  H.  D. 
Gehris,  M.  D. 
Geiger,  Fred. 
Gibbon,  R.  I. 
Gilbert,  S.  E. 
Goodwin,  John  W. 
Gordon,  Rev.  John. 
Hagner,  S.  D. 
Haines,   Rev.   C.   W. 
Hanna,  Meredith. 
Hanna,  Rev.  T.  C. 
Hansell,  Frank. 
Ilargravcs,  Herbert. 
Harris,  Rev.  A.  E. 
Harrison,  Rev.  L.  S. 
Haslani,  Rev.  J.  H. 
Higgins,  Rev.  H.  S. 
Highley,  F.  M. 
Hobart,  Rev.  A.  S. 


Holloway,  Rev.  T.  P. 
Hong,  Rev.  Lee. 
Hookway,   Rev.   J.  A. 
Hoot,  W.  H. 
Hopper,  H.  Boardman. 
Hopper,  H.  S. 
Hopper,  W.  G. 
Hoyt,  C.  P. 
Hudson,  R.  L. 
Humphreys,  J.   (J. 
Hutchinson,  F.  W. 
Jackson,   Rev.   C.   L. 
James,  C.  H. 
Jones,  Rev.  P.  L. 
Kaaz,   Rev.   Herman. 
Kauffman,  J.  C. 
Keating,  L.  A. 
Keen,  W.  W. 
Kerbaugh,  J.   F. 
Koons,  U.  S. 
Kuen,  C.  L. 
Kuhn,  Rev.  W.  L. 
Kweetin,   Rev.  John. 
Landes,  G.  C. 
Laurence,  Rev.  A.  Oliver. 
Leas,  D.  P. 
Lee,  W.  T. 
Levis,  Grant. 
Levering,  J.  W. 
Liddell,  R.  B. 
Lorimer,  G.  H. 
Love,  Rev.  John. 
Lovell,  K.  A. 
Lyell,  Rev.  J.  W. 
MacMackin,  Rev.  B. 
Mackay,   Robert  M. 
Main,  Rev.  W.  H. 
Martin,  Thomas. 
Martin,  Rev.  William. 
Matlack,  Ellwood. 
Matthews,    Thomas    S. 
Maxwell,   Rev.  J.   A. 
McClellan,  Robert. 
McKinney,  H.  N. 
McVitty,'  T.   E. 
Miller,  Hiram. 
Miller,   J.    F. 
Montanye,  E.  Y. 
Moritz,  William. 
Morris,  W.  E. 
Myers,  C.  A. 
Neher,   Frank. 
Neisser,   Rev.   R. 
Newkirk,  Rev.   B.  L. 
Nice,  E.  E. 
O'Harra,  Mrs.  I.  H. 
Ott,  Esq.,  S.  Conrad. 
Peck,  C.  R. 


Peck,  Rev.  George  W. 
Pickett,  H.  E. 
Pidge,   Rev.  J.   B.   G. 
Pluramer,  E.  H. 
Powell,  Rev.  E.  W. 
Randall,  William. 
Reed,   William  A. 
Reynolds,  Rev.  A.  W. 
Righter,  G.  M.,  2nd. 
Rosselle,  Rev.  W.  Q. 
Rowland,  Rev.  A.  J. 
Rue,   L.   L. 
Samson,  Rev.  T.  S. 
Saull,  Vincent. 
Saylor,  R.  W. 
Savre,  J.  C. 
Sciioley,   E.   D. 
Scott,  John. 
Scott,  W.  M. 
Scott,  W.  M. 
Smith,  Rev.  Frank  A. 
Smith,   Rev.  H.  W. 
Solly,  Rev.  D.  A. 
Spellissy,  F.  F. 
Spencer,  Rev.  David. 
Spinney,  Rev.  W.  A. 
Sprague,  Rev.  T.  H. 
Stauflfer,  W.  H. 
Steward,  Rev.  0.  T. 
Stidham,  Rev.  I.  F. 
Stretch,  R.  G. 
Stringer,   Rev,  H.  W. 
Strunk,  H.  H. 
Swift,  Rev.  G.  H. 
Svenson,  Rev.  S. 
Thatcher,  Rev.  W.  D. 
Tinsley,   John. 
Tustin,  E.  L. 
Van  Sciver,  J.  B. 
Vautier,  A.  H. 
Walker,  G.  B. 
Walker,  Rev.  J.   G. 
Walton,   C.  S. 
Warner,  H.  L. 
Warwick,   Rev.    Charles. 
Watson,  Rev.  A-  S. 
Weaver,  John. 
Webb,  Rev.  G.  T. 
Weber,   F.  W. 
Weir,  William  T.,  Jr. 
Welsh,  W.  L. 
West,  Rev.   R.  R. 
Weston,  F.  E. 
Wilbur,  Rev.  J.  M. 
Wilkinson,  L.  D. 
Williams,  Rev.  H.  K. 
Woolston,   Rev.  C.  H. 
Zimmer,  Fred  E. 


WOMEN'S   COMMITTEE. 


Mrs.  I.  H.  O'Harra,  Chairman;   Mrs.  Charles  Walton,  Vice-Chairman ;   Mrs. 
George  W.  Swift,  Secretary;  Mrs.  C.  H.  Banes,  Treasurer. 


Mrs.  R.  Maplesden. 

Mrs.  H.  N.  Jones. 

Mrs.  Howard  Wayne  Smith. 

Mrs.  J.   Milnor   VVilbur. 

Mrs.  George  D.   Adams. 

Mrs.  Margaret  Miistin. 

Mrs.  Robert  P.  Stellwagon. 

Mrs.  F.   W.   Hutchinson. 

Mrs.  George  H.   Ferris. 

Mrs.  Edwin  A.  Moore. 

Mrs.  Rutger   Dox. 

Mrs.  J.    Henry   Haslam. 

Mrs.  Walter  Bailey. 

Mrs.  Edwin   Landell. 

Mrs.  E.   B.   Wilford. 

Mrs.  J.  B.  Gough  Pidge. 

Mrs.  C.  H.  Banes. 

Mrs.  J.  C.  KaufTman. 

Mrs.  Howard  Brooks. 

Mrs.  Nathan  Heath. 

Miss  Florence  Elliott. 

Mrs.  Margarette  Jackson. 

Miss  Rosamond  Hope. 

Mrs.  E.  W.  Powell. 

Miss  Frances   Langstroth. 

Mrs.  William  H.  Main. 

Mrs.  Ezra  Allen. 

Mrs.  C.  R.   Blackall. 

Mrs.  Robert  G.  Seymour. 

Miss  Lizzie  A.  Evans. 

Mrs.  Charles  Walton, 

Mrs.  William  Morris. 

Mrs.  B.   F.   Dennison. 

Mrs.  T.  H.  Sprague. 

Mrs.  C.  R.  Pock. 

Mrs.  Spencer   Mulford. 

Mrs.  G.  H.  Swift. 

Mrs.  A.  J.  Rowland. 

Miss  Ada  Crozer. 

Countess  Eulalia. 

Mrs.  H.  S.  Hopper. 

Miss  Mary  R.  Hansell. 

Miss  Elizabeth    Butterworth. 

Mrs.  J.  G.  Walker. 

Mrs.  E.  L.  Tustin. 


Mrs.  E.  A.  Anderson. 

Mrs.  Walter  Lee. 

Mrs.  W^alter  Shumway. 

Mrs.  W.  H.   Weimer,  Jr. 

Mrs.  J.  Lewis  Crozer. 

Miss  Mabel  Leas. 

Mrs.  Jacob  Sallade. 

Mrs.  M.  B.  Harris. 

Mrs.  H.  L.  Wayland. 

Mrs.  Harry  Moore. 

Mrs.  John  Levering. 

Mrs.  David    Spencer. 

Mrs.  C.  N.  Selser. 

Mrs.  G.  L.  Estabrook. 

Mrs.  Mary  Custis. 

Mrs.  A.  W.  Reynolds. 

Mrs.  G.   C.  Landes. 

Mrs.  Arthur  Harris. 

Mrs.  George  Demuth. 

Mrs.  Harry  John. 

Mrs.  E.  B.  Bechtel. 

Mrs.  George  Cooper. 

Mrs.  Emma  M.  Denithorne. 

Mrs.  S.  V.  Whittemore. 

Mrs.  T.  Seymour  Scott. 

Miss  Laura  H.  Carnell. 

Mrs.  A.  P.  De  Sanno. 

Mrs.  Samuel  Bolton. 

Mrs.  L.  T.   Rothell. 

Mrs.  J.   R.  Hathaway. 

Mrs.  J.  Francis  Behrens. 

Miss  Sara  J.  Perry. 

Mrs.  George  Washington  C.  Mixter. 

Mrs.  Joseph   Cope. 

Mrs.  Charles  J.  Riter. 

Mrs.  William  Welsh. 

Miss  Enda  Munger. 

Mrs.  F.  W.  Barnes. 

Mrs.  J.   Benton   Porter. 

Mrs.  Edward  A.  Shumway. 

Mrs.  H.  G.  Kepler. 

Mrs.  Charles   D.   Kirby. 

Mrs.  J.  A.  ISLixwell. 

Mrs.  Frank  S.  Dobbins. 

Mrs.  W.  C.  Ebaugh. 


EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE. 

Chairman — Rev.   H.   W.   Smith. 

Vice  Chairmen — Rev.  G.  D.  Adams,  H.  S.  Hopper,  W.  W.  Keen,  Rev. 
A,  S.  Hobart,  Rev.  E,  W.  Powell,  Rev.  W.  H.  Main,  John  P.  Crozer, 
D.  P.  Leas. 

Rev.   Orlando  T.   Steward,   Secretary. 

Hon.  E.  L.  Tustin,  Treasurer. 
Geo.  B.  Walker,  Assistant  Treasurer 


Finance  Committee. 
D.  P.  Leas,  Chairman. 

Publicity  Committee. 
Rev.  J.  Milnor  Wilbur,  Chairman. 

Publications  Committee. 
Rev.  Philip  L.  Jones,  Chairman. 

Pulpit  Supply  Committee. 

Rev.  W.   Quay  Rosselle  and  Rev.  G, 

T.   Webb,   Chairmen. 

Preaching  Bureau  Committee. 
Rev.  Howard  W.  Smith,  Chairman. 

Sectional  Meetings  Committee. 
Rev.   A.   C.   Applegarth,   Chairman. 

Excursions   Committee. 
A.  H.  Vautier,  Chairman. 

Registration  Committee. 
L.  A.  Keating,   Chairman. 

Hospitality   Committee. 
Ray  L.  Hudson,  Chairman. 

Music  Committee. 
Rev.  A.  E.  Harris,   Chairman. 

Welcome   Committee. 
Rev.  J.  H.  Haslam,  Chairman. 


Information   Committee. 
Rev.  H.  K.  Williams,  Chairman. 

Woman's  Committee. 
Mrs.  I.  H.  O'Harra,  Chairman. 

Women's  Sub-Committees. 

hospitality. 
Mrs.  Nathan  B.  Heath,  Chairman. 

FINANCE. 

Mrs.  Edwin  A.  Moore,  Chairman. 

EMERGENCY. 

Mrs.  William  Morris,  Chairman. 

YOUNG    WOMEN. 

Mts.  John  M.  Wilbur,  Chairman. 

SIGHT-SEEING. 

Miss      Elizabeth      W.      Butterworth, 
Chairman. 

RECEPTION    TO   N.    B.    C. 

Mrs.  J.  G.  Walker,  Chairman. 

TEMPLE    RECEPTION. 

Mrs.   Marcella   B.   Harris,   Chairman. 

UNIVERSITY     BOTANICAL     GARDENS 
RECEPTION. 

Mrs.   H.   N.   Jones,   Chairman. 


THE   SPECIAL    COMMITTEES. 


Ayer,  F.  W. 
Bailey,  W.  A. 
Butterworth,  James. 
Crozer,  G.  K. 
DeSanno,  A.  P. 
Gehris,  M.  D. 
Hopper,   H.   S. 
Hopper,   W.   G. 
McKinney,  H.  N. 


Finance  Committee. 

D.  P.  Leas,  Chairman. 

McVitty,  T.  E. 
Nice,  E.  E. 
Ott,  Esq.,  S.  Conrad. 
Plummer,  E.  H. 
Rue,   L.  L. 
Scholey,  E.  D. 
Scott,  W.  M. 
Scott,  W.  M. 
Walton,   C.  S. 


Adams,  Eev.  C.  A. 


Welcome   Committee. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Haslam,  Chairman. 

Sprague,  Rev.  Thomas  H. 
Powell,  Rev.  Elmer  W. 


Cox,  Walter. 


Registration  Committee. 

L.  A.  Keating,  Chairman. 

Hutchinson,  F.  W. 
Webb,   Rev.   G.   T. 


ExcuESioNS   Committee. 

A.  H.  Vautier,  Chairman. 
Webb,  Rev.  G.  T. 

Sectional  Meetings  Committee. 

Rev.  A.   C.  Applegarth,   Chairman. 
Alf,  Rev.  G.  A.  Kaaz,  Rev.  Herman. 

C'hiera,  Rev.  Alberto.  Kuhn,  Rev.  W.  L. 

Dulitz,  Rev.  N.  Kweetin,  Rev.  John. 

Gibbon,  Rev.  I.  Newkirk,   Rev.  B.  L. 

Hong,  Rev.  Lee.  Svenson,  Rev.  S. 

Publications  Committee. 

Rev.  P.  L.  Jones,  Chairman. 
Hookway,  Rev.  J.  A.  West,  Rev.  R.  R. 


Publicity  Committee. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Wilbur,  Chairman. 
Forney,  Rev.  W.  B.  KaufTman,  J.  C. 

Hopper,  H.  Boardman.  Spinnov,  Rev.  W.  A. 

Swift,  Rev.  G.  H.  ' 


CO-OPEBATING    COMMITTEE. 

Rev.  E.  W.  Moore,  D.  D.,  Chairman. 
Rev.  W.  A.  Creditt,  D.  D.  Rev.  G.  L.  Davis. 

Rev.  W.  G.  Parks,  D.  D.  Rev.  J.  C.  Jackson,  D.  D. 

Rev.  A.  R.  Robinson. 

Pulpit  Supply  Committee. 

Rev.  W.  Q.  Rosselle  and  Rev.  George  T.  Webb,  Chairmen. 
Ferris,   Rev.    G.   H.  Main,  Rev.  W.  H. 

Stringer,   Rev.  H.   W. 

Peeaching  Bureau  Committee. 

Rev.  H.  W.  Smith,   Chairman. 
Gordon,  Rev.  John.  Steward,  Rev.  O.  T. 


REV.    ROBERT    STUART   MacARTHUR. 
President  of  The  Baptist  World  Alliance. 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD 
ALLIANCE. 


PREIA.MBLE. 


Whereas,  in  the  providence  of  God,  the  time  has  come  when  it  seems  fitting 
more  fully  to  manifest  the  essential  oneness  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  their 
God  and  Saviour,  of  the  churches  of  the  Baptist  order  and  faith  throughout 
the  world,  and  to  promote  the  spirit  of  fellowship,  service,  and  co-operation 
among  them,  while  recognizing  the  independence  of  each  particular  church 
and  not  assuming  the  functions  of  any  existing  organization,  it  is  agreed  to 
form  a  Baptist  Alliance,  extending  over  every  part  of  the  world. 

Articles. 

I.  Designation. — This  Alliance  shall  be  known  as  "The  Baptist  World 
Alliance." 

II.  Membcrsliip. — Any  gonoral  Union,  Convention,  or  Association  of  Bap- 
tist churches  shall  be  eligible  for  membership  in  tlie  Alliance. 

III.  Officers. — The  officers  of  the  Alliance  shall  be:  A  President,  a  Vice- 
President  from  each  country  represented  in  the  Alliance,  a  Treasurer,  a  Brit- 
ish Secretary,  and  an  American  Secretary. 

IV.  The  Executive  Committee. — The  Executive  Committee  shall  consist  of 
the  President,  Treasurer,  Secretaries,  and  twenty-one  other  members,  all  of 
whom,  together  with  the  officers,  shall  be  elected  at  each  General  Meeting  of 
the  Alliance  and  enter  upon  office  at  the  close  of  such  meeting.  Of  the 
twenty-one  elected  members: — 

Five  shall  be  from  Great  Britain,  seven  shall  be  from  the  United  States  of 
America,  two  shall  be  from  Canada,  and  the  remaining  seven  shall  be  from 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

Five  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum  for  a  meeting  of  the  Executive, 
but  absent  members  shall  have  the  right  of  voting  by  proxy,  through  any 
other  member  of  the  Executive  who  shall  produce  a  written  authorisation. 
A  majority  of  those  voting  in  person  or  by  proxy  shall  be  sufficient  for  the 
transaction  of  business.  Three  months'  notice  shall  be  given  to  every  member 
of  the  Executive  of  all  business  to  be  brought  before  the  next  meeting,  which 
i8  other  than  routine  business.  The  President  shall  appoint  at  a  general 
meeting  of  the  Alliance  a  Committee  of  nine  members  to  submit  the  names 
of  the  officers  and  of  the  Executive  Committee  for  the  approval  of  the  General 
Meeting. 

V.  Advisory  Committee. — At  a  date  not  later  than  one  year  preceding  a 
General  Meeting  of  the  Alliance,  the  Executive  Committee  shall  have  author- 
ity to  appoint  an  Advisory  Committee  of  not  more  than  three  hundred  mem- 
bers of  the  Alliance,  to  confer  with  the  Executive  Committee  on  any  matter 
pertaining  to  the  objects  of  the  Alliance.  The  Executive  shall,  however,  have 
power  to  appoint  an  Advisory  Committee  not  exceeding  three  hundred  mem- 
bers at  such  other  times  as  it  may  consider  necessary. 

VI.  Pollers  of  the  Executive. — The  Executive  Committee  shall  have  the 
power  of  filling  vacancies  which  may  occur  among  the  officers  and  the 
Executive  when  the  Assembly  is  not  in  Session.  It  shall  be  the  first  business 
of  the  Executive  Committee,  after  its  appointment,  and  the  forming  of  this 
Alliance,  to  frame  the  bv-laws  for  the  administration  of  business. 


VII.  General  Meeting. — The  Alliance  shall  meet  in  general  assembly  or- 
dinarily once  in  five  years,  unless  otherwise  determined  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, the  specific  date  and  place  to  be  determined  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee which  shall  have  power  to  make  all  necessary  arrangements  therefor. 

VIII.  Representation  for  General  Meeting. — Each  constituent  body  of  the 
Alliance  may  appoint  messengers  to  the  General  Meeting  from  its  own  resi- 
dent members  on  a  basis  to  be  determined  by  the  Executive  Committee. 

Amendment. — No  change  shall  be  made  in  this  Constitution  except  by  a 
two-thirds  majority  at  a  G€neral  Meeting  of  the  Alliance  after  at  least  two 
days'  notice  of  the  proposed  action,  such  vote  not  to  be  taken  on  the  last  day 
of  the  meeting. 

Amendments    to   the   Constitution   Made   at   Philadelphia. 

All  articles  not  here  reproduced    (marked  by  italics)   remain  unchanged: 

2.  Membership :  Any  General  Union,  Convention,  or  Association  of  Bap- 
tist churches,  or  Conference  of  Native  churches  and  missionaries  or  general 
Foreign  Missionary  Society,  shall  be  eligible  for  membership  in  the  Alliance. 

3.  Officers.  The  officers  of  the  Alliance  shall  be:  A  President,  a  Deputy 
President,  a  Vice-President  from  each  country  represented  in  the  Alliance,  a 
European  Treasurer,  an  American  Treasurer,  a  European  Secretary,  and  an 
American  Secretary.  The  European  Secretary  shall  deal  toith  everything 
outside  of  America. 

4.  The  Executive  Committee:  The  Executive  Committee  shall  consist  of 
the  President,  the  Deputy  President,  the  Treasurer,  the  Secretaries,  and 
twenty-iioo  other  members,  all  of  whom,  together  with  the  officers,  shall  be 
elected  at  each  general  meeting  of  the  Alliance,  and  enter  on  office  at  the 
close  of  each  meeting.  Tlie  Deputy  President  shall  he  appointed  by  the 
Pres\ident  on  the  nomination  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  shall  he  chosen 
from  the  hemisphere  in  which  the  President  does  not  reside.  Of  the  twenty- 
two  elected  members,  five  shall  be  from  Great  Britain,  seven  shall  be  from 
the  United  States  of  America,  two  shall  be  from  Canada,  and  the  remaining 
eight  shall  be  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Meetings  of  the  Executive  sliall  he  summoned  hy  hoth  Secretaries.  Five 
members  shall  constitute  a  quorum,  etc.  (For  last  sentence  substitute.)  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Alliance,  it  shall  he  the  first  business  of  the  Executive  to 
select  a  committee  for  the  nomination  of  officers,  which  committee  shall  be 
appointed  by  the  President  in  open  meeting. 

By-Laws. 

2  (a)  That  the  Program  for  each  World  Alliance  shall  be  printed  at  least 
two  years  in  advance,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Secretary  for  tJie  hemisphere 
in  which  the  Congress  is  being  held  in  consultation  with  the  members  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance  Executive  resident  in  the  same  hemisphere. 

4.      (Substitute  hemisphere  for  country) 

8.  That  the  clerical  and  other  expenses  incurred  by  each  Union  or  Con- 
vention in  the  transaction  of  Alliance  business  shall  be  borne  by  itself. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  ALLIANCE  AND  THE    EXECUTIVE 
COMMITTEE. 


President. — Robert  Stuart  MacArthur,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  New  York. 
SiccuETARiios. — J.  N.   Prestridge,   D.   D.,   Kentucky;  J.  H.  Shakespeare,  M.  A., 

London. 
Treasurer. — E.  M.  Sipprell,  St.  John,  N.  B. 
Treasurer  for  Euroi'e. — Herbert  Marnham,  London. 
Vice-Presidents. — Bahamas,  Mornay  Williams,  E.  N. 

British  Honduras,   R.   Cleghorn,  Belize. 

Germany,  B.  Werts,  Boclium. 

Jamaica,    P.    Williams,    Betheltown. 

National  Baptist  Convention,  A.  R.  Robinson,  Chester,  Pa. 

lius^iia,  I.   8.   Proklionofl',   8t.   Petersl)urg. 

New   South   Wales,   Hugh   Dixson,   Sidney. 

South  Australia,   H.   S.   Ramford,  J,  P.,  London. 

Tasmania,   C.   Palmer,   Latrobe. 

New  Zealand,  Alfred  North,  Ponsonby. 
Executive  Committee. — British    (Five  Members)  : — 

W.  E.  Blomfield,  B.  A.,  D.  D.,  Rawdon. 

D.  Witton  Jenkins,  Salendine  Hook. 
F.  B.  Meyer,  London. 

Newton  H.  Marshall,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D.,  London. 
W.  T.  Whitley,  M.  A.,  LL.  D.,  Preston. 
American    (Seven   Members)  : — 

L.  A.   Crandall,  D.  D.,  Minnesota. 
George   E.   Horr,  D.  D.,  ]\Iassachusetts. 
John  Humpstone,  D.  D.,  New  York. 
W.  W.  Landrum,   D.   D.,  Kentucky. 

E.  C.  Morris,  D.  D.,  Arkansas. 
R.  H.  Pitt,  D.  D.,  Virginia. 
Hon.   E.   W.   Stephens,   Missouri. 

Canadian    (Two   Members)  : — 

A.  P.  McDiarmid,  D.  D.,  Manitoba. 
S.    J.    Moore,    Toronto. 
For  the  following  countries  one  each:  — 

Australia. — Westmore   G.   Stephens,   ilelbourne. 

Chinese. — J.  T.  Proctor,  Shanghai. 

Germany. — J.  C.  Lehmann,  Kassel. 

Indian. — C.  E.  Wilson,  B.  A.,  London. 

Japanese. — Y.  Chiba,  Tokio. 

Russian. — L.  Brauer,  Riga. 

Swedish. — C.   E.    Benandcr,   1).   D.,   Stockholm. 

Congo. — Rev.   Joseph  Clark,   Ikoka. 

South  Africa. — T.  B.  King,  Cape  Colony. 

Lettish   Baptist  Union. — Pastor   I.   A.    Frey,   Rigu. 

Russian  Baptist  Union. — Pastor  Ilia,  GoliaefT. 

Norway. — Rev.  J.  A.  Ohr,  Christiana. 

C0M3HTTEE  ON    RESOLUTIONS. 
L.   A.  Crandall  J.  N.  Prestridge 

J.  B.  Gambrell  Howard  Wayne  Smith 

J.  H.  Shakespeare  George  W.  Truett 


W.  T.  Stackhouse 
J.  S.  Diekerson 
A.  T.  Kobertson 
Curtis  Lee  Laws 
J.  T.  Cody 
F.  L.  Wilkins 
Jasper  Howell 


COMMITTEE  ON  NOMINATIONS. 

J.  H.  Farmer 
W.  T.  Waiitley 
Herbert  Marnham 
W.  W.  Landrum 
J.  G.  Lehmann 
F.  C.  McConnell 
T.  0.  Conant 

COMMITTEE  ON  PEACE. 


Dr.  John  Clifford    (Chairman) 
R.  S.  MacArthur 
J.  G.  Lehmann 


E.  Y.  Mullins 

F.  B.  Meyer 
W.  Fetler 


COMMITTEE  ON  MESSAGE  TO  THE  KING  AND  QUEEN  OF 
ENGLAND. 


John  CliflFord 


J.  H.  Shakespeare 


J.  S,  Diekerson 


COMMITTEE  ON  UNOCCUPIED  MISSION  FIELDS. 
J.  E.  Ewing  W.  0.  Carver 

Cornelius  Woelfkin  C.  E.  Wilson 

Geo.  C.  Briggs  T.  B.  Ray 

E,  C.  Morris 

COMMITTEE   ON   YOUNG   PEOPLE'S   BAPTIST   WORLD'S 
ORGANIZATION. 


Geo.   W.   Coleman,  Massachusetts. 
Rev.  H.  W.  Smith,  Pennsylvania. 
Rev.  C.  D.  Case,  New  York. 
Geo.  Miller,  Maryland. 
R.  A.  Bogley,  District  Columbia. 
Rev.  J.  L.  Gilmour,  Ontario. 
A.  M.  Douglas,  Alabama. 
Rev.  A.  L.  Brown,  Ontario. 
Rev.  H.  H.  Bingham,  Ontario. 
Rev.  A.  H.  Vautier,  Pennsylvania. 
Rev.  J.  M.  Frost,  Tennessee. 
H.   C.  Lincoln,   Pennsylvania. 
Prof.  J.  H.  Farmer,  Ontario. 


H.   G.  Baldwin,  Ohio    (Afterward  ap- 
pointed Treasurer). 
Rev.   Walter   Calley,   Massachusetts. 
Rev.  J.  T.  Watts,  Virginia. 
Rev.   B.   W.   Merrill,   Ontario. 
H.  V.  Meyer,  Massachusetts. 
Pres.  E.  Y.  Mullins,  Kentucky. 
R.  H.  Coleman,  Texas. 
Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  England. 
Rev.  A.  N.  Marshall,  Australia. 
Rev.  W.  A.  Fetler,  Russia. 
Rev.  G.  T.  Webb,  Pennsylvania. 
Prof.  Ira  M.  Price,  Illinois. 


COMMITTEE  ON  SOCIAL  WORK. 


Samuel  Z.  Batten 
F.  W.  Patterson 
E.  Y.  Mullins 
Walter  Rauschenbusch 
David  W.  Roberts 
B.  L.  Whitman 
Rivington  D.  Lord 
John  Clifford 


A.  M.  Simoleit 
R.  S.  Grav 
Thos.  Phillips 
J.  W.  Graves 
E.  C.  Dargan 
Milton  G.  Evans 
Frank  M.  Goodchild 


SUB-COMMITTEE  ON  QUESTIONS  PERTAINING  TO  CONSTITUTION 
OF  THE    ALLIANCE. 


Dr.  L.  A.  Crandall 
Rev.  J.  G.  Lehmann 
Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer 
Rev.  C.  E.  Benander 
Dr.  E.  C.  Morris 


Dr.  H.  Newton  Marshall 
Dr.  J.  N.  Prestridge 
Rev.  J.  H.  Shakespeare 
Rev.  W.  T.  Whitley 


PROCEEDINGS. 


Philadelphia,  June  19,  1911. 

The  opening  session  of  the  Congress  was  called  to  order  at  2.30  P.  M. 
in  the  Baptist  Temple,  the  President  Dr.  John  Clifford  in  the  chair. 

After  devotional  exercises  Dr.  J.  Henry  Haslain,  of  Philadelphia,  spoke 
as  follows. 

Dr.  J.  Henry  Haslam  :  Mr.  President  and  far-traveled  brothers  and  sis- 
ters in  Christ,  it  is  not  my  intention  at  this  moment  to  make  an  address, 
but  just  to  represent  in  a  single  word  the  Committee  which  has  had  in 
charge  the  arrangements  for  this  meeting.  There  are  perhaps  many  of 
you  here  to  whom  I  should  say  that  you  have  come  to  us  at  the  close  of 
one  of  the  most  notable  meetings  that  Baptists  have  ever  held  on  the 
American  Continent.  In  the  numbers  that  have  been  assembled,  in  the 
heights  to  which  we  have  been  carried  by  the  great  addresses  of  the  occa- 
sion, in  the  magnificent  outlook  that  has  been  furnished  to  us  of  our 
world-wide  tasks,  the  Convention  of  the  week  that  has  just  closed  has 
left  our  Northern  Baptists  on  higher  outlooks  for  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual history  than  at  any  previous  moment  in  their  story  of  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  years  this  month  in  this  country.  When  we  came  to- 
gether a  week  ago,  if  any  of  us  had  in  our  minds  any  thought  that 

"East  is  east  and  west  is  west, 
And  never  the  twain  shall  meet, 
Till  earth  and  sky  stand  presently 
At  God 's  great  judgment  seat, ' ' 

we  have  changed  our  minds  and  we  think  that  the  poet  who  went  on  in 
the  same  poem  to  come  nearer  the  truth  has  indeed  voiced  our  feeling 
now  that  "There  is  neither  border  nor  breed  nor  birth  when  two  strong 
men  stand  face  to  face,  tho'  they  come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth."  We 
have  been  gathered,  as  it  were,  under  a  single  flag  up  to  this  hour;  but 
now  we  are  gathered  under  the  flags  of  many  nations,  and  God  has  made 
us,  we  think,  the  forerunner  of  that  greater  federation  so  surely  promised 
under  the  leatlership  of  his  Son.  We  have  appointed  men  who  will  de- 
liver on  our  behalf  the  spirit  and  thought  of  welcome  that  is  in  all  our 
hearts. 

It  falls  to  me  in  a  single  sentence  or  two  to  do  a  task  that  no  number 
of  sentences  are  adequate  for,  to  present  to  you  the  presiding  officer  of 
this  welcome  service.  He  is  a  very  notable  minister  for  this  reason  that 
for  twenty-seven  years  or  more  in  this  place  in  which  we  are  gathered 
he  has  preached  sermons,  two  every  Sunday  or  three,  and  some  through 

I 


2  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  week,  and  he  has  never  in  those  twenty-seven  years  been  known  to 
change  his  sermon.  He  changes  his  texts  every  Sunday  regularly  but 
he  has  never  changed  his  sermon.  The  first  sermon  that  this  distin- 
guished and  beloved  brother  of  ours  preached  here  was  on  the  text  that 
Jesus  went  about  their  villages  teaching  and  healing  the  sick  and  preach- 
ing the  gospel;  and  the  last  sermon  he  preached  here  was  on  some  other 
text,  but  that  was  the  idea.  Years  ago  he  began  to  translate  that  text 
into  something  more  than  sermons;  he  said  that  Jesus  healed  the  sick, 
and  so  he  planted  the  Samaritan  Hospital  on  North  Broad  Street.  The 
text  taught  him  that  Jesus  taught  the  people,  and  he  established  one  of 
the  most  notable  colleges  and  universities  on  the  American  continent 
alongside  of  the  church.  And  in  between  his  splendid  university  and  his 
efficient  hospital  he  planted  the  source  of  inspiration  for  that  kind  and 
all  kinds  of  work,  this  great  Grace  Baptist  Church,  and  for  almost  thirty 
years  our  beloved  and  distinguished  and  world-known  brother  has  been 
preaching  that  same  old  sermon.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  have  him  rep- 
resent us  this  afternoon  in  presiding  over  this  meeting,  and  it  is  my 
pleasure  and  privilege  and  joy  to  announce  and  present  to  you  as  our 
presiding  officer  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Russell  H.  Conavell  was  received  with  the  Chautauqua  salute  and 
said :  Mr.  President  and  Mr.  Chairman  of  the  Committee  and  brethren  of 
this  sublime  gathering,  we  in  Philadelphia  avail  ourselves  of  a  very  rare 
opportunity  of  showing  off  our  children  to  an  audience  we  may  never 
get  again.  Therefore  I  feel  the  kindness  and  sympathy  that  is  back  of 
this  invitation  to  present  myself  as  a  presiding  officer.  I  used  to  be  in 
politics  and  whenever  we  had  a  very  close  vote  we  always  put  one  of  the 
opposite  party  in  the  chair  so  as  to  reduce  the  vote  of  the  other  side,  and 
I  suppose  that  I  am  put  in  the  chair  perhaps  to  save  one  speech,  because 
a  presiding  officer  would  conduct  himself  very  ill  if  he  were  to  take  time 
for  an  extended  speech.  I  could  not,  however,  start  in  to  the  opening  of 
this  great  assembly  with  its  great  possibilities  without  saying  that  I 
hope  that  when  the  last  speech  is  made  and  a  review  of  this  great  World 
Alliance  is  made  that  we  will  look  back  upon  the  entire  session  and  find 
that  not  one  word  has  been  spoken  that  would  hurt  the  feelings  of  a 
brother  or  a  sister  who  loved  the  Lord,  and  find  that  no  enemies  had  been 
made  to  the  cause  of  Christ  but  his  friends  greatly  multiplied.  I  am 
conscious  here  at  this  moment  of  the  sublime  honor  of  occupying  such  a 
station  and  yet  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  preach  the  same  sermon  again  that 
Dr.  Haslam  says  I  have  preached  here  for  thirty  years.  It  is  the  same 
old  gospel,  always  new  though  it  be  old,  and  if  you  stick  to  Jesus  Christ 
I  think  you  will  always  have  something  to  talk  about  and  you  won't  need 
a  great  many  texts  to  do  it.  We  are  gathered  here  to-day  from  all  lands 
and  there  comes  directly  to  our  attention  the  experiences  of  those  breth- 
ren who  live  in  lands  different  from  ours.  In  our  country  every  man  is 
as  free  as  he  can  be,  for  every  man  is  equal  to  every  other  man,  if  he  can 
be,  and  under  our  flag  there  is  great  liberty  of  speech,  even  to  the  ladies 
in  men's  meetings;  and  as  we  enjoy  such  celebrated  liberty  of  speech  and 


REV.    RUSSELL    H.    CONWELL. 


Monday,  Juno  1!).J  liKVOKD   OF  I'liOCKIWIXaS.  3 

our  flag  now  spreads  itself  like  the  setting  hen  to  gather  a  greater  num- 
ber of  chickens,  I  hope  that  under  these  extraordinary  circumstances 
there  may  be  notliing  done  or  said  that  will  in  any  wise  interfere  with  the 
peace  and  comfort  and  progress  of  our  bretliren.  Permit  me  to  say  that 
there  is  a  burden  on  my  heart  which  in  a  moment  I  can  express.  We 
have  our  dear  brethren  here  from  Russia.  God  bless  them  every  one; 
they  have  suffered  what  we  Americans  cannot  understand.  We  sympa- 
thize with  them  deeply  and  sincerely  in  their  sacrifices,  and  we  feel  es- 
pecially tender  toward  those  Avho  go  back  to  their  country  with  the  pros- 
pect of  imprisonment  before  them  as  they  have  had  its  experience  behind 
them.  None  of  us  are  lacking  in  sympathy  with  those  dear  brethren  but 
there  is  one  danger  that  we  must  not  fail  to  consider,  and  that  is  that  in 
this  great  Convention  with  our  hearts  overflowing  Avith  sympathy,  with 
all  our  love  of  liberty  of  speech  and  liberty  of  worship  and  independence 
of  conscience,  we  may  get  so  excited  and  so  indignant  over  these  things 
as  to  say  things  that  will  make  it  harder  for  them  when  they  get  home. 
Let  us  remember  that.  Let  us  remember  that  Russia  after  all  has  mil- 
lions of  good  people  in  it;  remember  they  may  be  of  another  faith  in 
Russia  than  Ave,  but  let  us  also  remember  that  every  Baptist  that  is  true 
to  the  ancient  and  modern  principles  believes  in  the  right  of  every  other 
individual  Avhatever  church  he  belongs  to,  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  his  conscience.  Let  us  say  to  the  people  of  Russia,  let  us 
say  to  the  White  Czar  that  loveth  all  his  people  alike,  let  us  say  that  we 
respect  those  people,  love  those  people,  desire  the  good  of  those  people, 
and  that  these  brethren  are  sent  back  from  this  great  Convention  Avith  the 
prayer  that  they  may  have  Christ  going  with  them  everyAvhere  to  in- 
fluence mankind  for  good,  and  that  the  establishment  of  the  Baptist 
church  in  Russia  meaneth  no  harm  to  his  people  but  meaneth  ultimate 
blessing  and  almighty  good.  Let  us  ahvays  say  that,  let  us  through  this 
Convention  always  speak  kindly  of  Russia,  for  our  words  that  are  uttered 
here  Avill  be  read  by  the  Little  Father  in  his  home,  by  the  short-hand 
reports  that  I  know  are  to  be  taken  and  sent  there  from  this  place. 
Wlien  he  reads  what  you  say  and  when  he  reads  your  kind  expressions 
for  Russia  and  for  the  Russian  people,  and  your  reverence  for  their 
belief  and  their  faith,  these  brethren  will  go  back  to  their  homes  received 
as  messengers  of  good,  and  it  Avould  seem  that  if  Ave  speak  Christ  as  Ave 
do  love  him  and  as  Ave  believe  in  him,  that  when  they  get  back  to  Russia 
every  Russian  man  that  has  any  humanity  in  him  will  be  ashamed  of  any 
such  persecution  as  that  of  which  we  have  heard. 

And  we  have  here  brethren  from  another  benighted  land — and  I  say  it 
with  an  interrogation  point  very  large — Ave  have  brethren  here  from  Eng- 
land. Now  it  may  be  that  our  brother  Clifford,  hero  of  heroes  in  these 
modern  days.  Avill  go  back  to  find  that  Avhat  Ave  call  in  America  the  sher- 
iff has  been  in  and  taken  the  rest  of  his  tea-set  to  pay  the  taxes  he  pro- 
tests against  paying  for  the  support  of  religious  schools  in  which  he  does 
not  believe.  True  to  his  Baptist  principles  he  refuses  to  contribute  where 
his  heart  cannot  go,  and  the  sheriff  comes  and  takes  his  property.  The 
same  thing  with  Brother  Meyer.     The  other  day  Brother  Meyer  held  a 


4  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

conference  with  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  yet  when  he  goes 
back  to  England  if  he  does  not  pay  for  the  sustenance  of  a  school  that 
teaches  tenets  in  which  he  does  not  believe  they  will  come  again  as  they 
have  been  coming  right  along'  taking  his  property  and  selling  it  off  to  pay 
taxes  to  teach  those  tenets.  It  seems  strange  that  in  this  English-speak- 
ing country  we  should  ever  hear  of  such  a  thing;  it  seems  incredible  that 
a  man  of  such  saintly  character  could  ever  be  persecuted  like  that  in 
these  days;  it  seems  so  strange  that  it  could  be  done.  But  it  is  done. 
Now,  don't  let  Brother  Meyer  go  back  and  when  the  king  calls  him  to 
counsel  with  him  about  this  Convention,  you  don't  want  to  have  the  king 
say,  ''I  have  a  speech  made  by  one  of  the  delegates  of  that  Convention 
right  here  and  I  want  to  read  it  to  you  Mr.  Meyer  and  ask  you  if  that 
is  a  kindly  sentiment  toward  England."  I  remember  being  sent  to  Cuba 
by  the  government  before  the  Spanish  War  and  when  I  reached  Cuba  and 
had  an  interview  with  the  governor  of  the  island,  he  produced  sermons 
that  I  had  delivered  in  this  very  place  that  had  been  reported  to  him,  and 
he  read  them  over;  and  there  were  some  things  that  were  very  embar- 
rassing to  me.  Don't  send  Brother  Meyer  and  Dr.  Clifford  and  other 
heroes  like  them  back  to  England  Avith  any  message  over  there  ahead  of 
them  by  telegraph  to  meet  them  and  injure  their  influence  for  the  cause 
of  Christ  in  England. 

We  have  here  one  other  thing  I  ought  to  mention ;  we  have  here  men 
from  the  Southern  States  of  the  United  States  and  we  have  here  men  that 
remember  a  war  of  fifty  years  ago.  They  say  ''Don't  speak  about  that  in 
social  life  North  and  South  now";  but  I  met  a  Confederate  brother  that 
shot  at  me  awhile  ago,  and  I  am  not  certain  but  I  shot  at  him  if  I  shot  at 
anybody.  But  we  are  brothers  now,  and  if  he  exhausts  all  the  Southern 
dialect  he  cannot  say  any  more  good  things  and  honestly  true  things 
about  General  Lee  than  I  can  say  as  a  Northern  soldier;  and  if  I  spent  the 
afternoon  eulogizing  General  Grant  or  Abraham  Lincoln  I  would  not 
say  so  many  good  things  as  my  eloquent  brother  from  Atlanta  would 
say  if  he  had  an  opportunity  to  speak.  Now  my  Confederate  soldier 
brother  who  shot  at  me  and  I  who  perhaps  shot  at  him,  are  one,  we  are 
brothers,  we  won't  find  any  fault;  we  will  say  nothing  in  the  North 
against  the  South,  and  down  there  when  I  go  I  don't  hear  them  say  any- 
thing against  the  North.  Now  let  us  have  that  sectionalism  utterly  ob- 
literated in  the  name  of  Christ.  In  the  name  of  Christ  will  my  North- 
ern brethren  stop  if  they  are  criticising  the  South ;  they  will  cease  to 
do  it  and  think  of  what  they  have  suffered  and  what  brave  things  they 
have  done  and  how  true  they  are  to  our  nation  and  how  true  they  are 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  let  our  Southern  brother  remember  that 
if  we  have  said  anything  harmful  about  him  it  is  because  we  did  not 
know  any  better  and  he  ought  to  give  us  the  credit  of  our  ignorance. 
Therefore,  on  behalf  of  this  city,  on  behalf  of  the  denomination  which 
I  feel  it  is  a  great  honor  to  represent,  as  a  brother  in  Christ  I  welcome 
you  all  to  this  city;  but  others  are  appointed  to  make  the  speeches  and 
I  may  have  encroached  upon  them  unfairly  already.  The  next  speaker 
is  one  of  our  children  that  we  delight  to  show  off  when  we  get  an  audi- 


Monday,  June  10.]  in-JCORD  OF  PROCEEDIXGS.  5 

ence  tot>etlier  that  they  could  not  draw  llienisclves.  We  present  to  you 
one  who  draws  the  hirgost  audience  i)erhai)s  that  we  liave  as  far  as  his 
building's  capacity  is  concerned,  and  one  who  draws  a  much  wider  au- 
dience over  the  country  and  over  the  world  with  his  scholarlj'  sayings 
and  with  his  very  useful  life  in  the  community.  He  is  one  of  Philadel- 
phia's heart-men,  he  lives  near  the  heart  of  the  people,  and  when  he 
speaks  to  you  he  will  express  the  heart  of  Philadelphia  in  his  welcome, 
I  am  sure.  I  gladly  introduce  to  you  Dr.  Geo.  H.  Ferris,  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 

By  GEORGE  H.  FERRIS,  D.  D., 
Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,  Philadelphia. 

In  this  gathering  I  soe  an  effort  to  fuse  the  various  elements  of  our 
Baptist  brotherhood.  Though  we  glory  in  our  diversity,  and  boast  of  our 
freedom,  we  recognize  the  weakness  of  action  that  is  not  united  and 
common.  The  problem  is  not  an  easy  one.  Hoav  can  we  maintain  our 
traditions  of  liberty,  and  yet  keep  from  disintegration'?  How  can  we 
come  together  for  toil  and  aspiration,  and  yet  avoid  every  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny?  How  can  we  express  our  faith  in 
living  terms,  and  yet  not  bind  it  to  the  transient  formulas  of  some  single 
age?  Can  the  individual  state  his  belief  in  his  own  way,  and  yet  not  vio- 
late the  sanctities  of  the  organization?  These  are  a  few  of  the  questions 
that  arise,  when  we  begin  to  strive  for  both  unity  and  freedom. 

Our  Baptist  movement  was  born  of  too  great  unity.  To  this  day  we 
live  our  life  in  the  presence  of  a  compact  and  powerful  hierarchy.  The 
very  fact  that  the  Roman  Church  has  lived  so  many  centuries  of  itself 
tends  to  silence  criticism.  Noble  eras  and  great  achievements  are  to  be 
found  in  her  history.  Heroic  and  saintly  characters  have  added  lustre 
to  her  traditions.  Her  venerable  rites,  her  sacred  legends,  her  inspiring 
cathedrals,  all  conspire  to  dazzle  the  observer  and  make  him  look  at 
her  through  colored  lights  of  romance.  Her  services  are  spoken  in  a 
language  that  tells  of  a  dead  empire.  Before  the  tongues  of  our  modern 
nations  found  themselves,  she  had  formulated  her  faith  in  dignified 
ceremonies  that  still  are  heard  in  her  churches.  She  was  ready,  when 
the  art  of  printing  Avas  discovered,  to  make  it  serve  her  ambitions.  When 
a  new  continent  was  oi)ened  to  the  Avorld,  she  sent  her  emissaries  to  plant 
the  Cross  on  its  shores.  She  saw  the  Arab  hordes  cross  the  Bosphoinis, 
seize  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  sweep  over  Africa,  enter  the 
jirovinces  of  Spain,  and  at  last  fall  before  hosts  bearing  her  banners. 
To  all  this  she  points  with  pride.  She  has  made  it  her  supreme  object 
to  build  up  a  mighty  organization  that  time  cannot  destroy.  She  can 
stand  by  tlie  ruins  of  the  Forum  and  say,  "These  I  saw  in  the  days  of 
their  greatness."  She  can  look  on  the  monuments  that  crown  the  Acrop- 
olis and  say,  "Here  was  a  religion  that  once  treated  me  with  proud  dis- 
dain, but  now,  by  the  judgment  of  Cod.  it  has  become  but  a  niemory, 
while  I  have  prospered  and  endured."  This  is  ever  the  appeal  her  de- 
fenders make. 

To  what  can  we  point?    Have  we  anything  of  which  we  can  l)e  proud? 


6  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Divided,  scattered,  broken,  we  are  still  but  a  loose  and  tentative  band  of 
brothers.  Frightened  by  the  very  freedom  for  which  we  stand,  we  have 
clung  to  it  blindly  and  desperately.  Pledged  to  the  defense  of  orthodoxy, 
we  have  given  the  world  more  heretics  than  any  other  movement  that 
dared  to  caJl  itself  ' '  evangelical. ' '  Dazed  over  our  own  destiny,  we  have 
yet  been  the  instrument,  in  the  hands  of  God,  of  starting  Christianity 
on  her  great  modern  missionary  enterprise.  At  times  we  have  seemed 
to  envy  Rome  her  power,  and  yet  we  have  ever  been  her  direct  antithesis 
in  practice. 

What,  then,  can  we  say  for  ourselves?  This  we  will  say.  We  have 
not  built  up  a  great  hierarchy,  but  we  have  advanced  the  cause  of  a 
kingdom  that  ''cometh  not  with  observation."  We  have  failed  to 
achieve  the  dreams  of  those  among  our  leaders  who  would  fain  make  of 
us  a  mighty  church,  but  we  have  brought  the  blessings  of  light  and  lib- 
erty to  every  society  we  have  touched.  We  have  not  consolidated  our- 
selves at  the  expense  of  the  lands  we  have  visited,  but  have  striven  to 
uplift  and  bless  and  benefit.  The  turmoil  of  intellectual  discussion  that 
has  been  heard  in  our  gatherings,  has  resulted,  not  in  doctrinal  system, 
but  in  the  discovery  of  truth.  We  have  sought  to  train  men  to  think 
for  themselves,  and  have  ever  taught  them  to  respect  the  Voice  that 
speaks  with  authority  to  their  souls.  And  so,  though  our  efforts  have 
been  scattered,  though  our  freedom  has  been  dangerous  to  ourselves, 
though  our  history  is  but  the  story  of  independent  bands  of  volunteers 
who  have  gone  forth  from  the  farm  and  the  shop,  we  still  stand,  scorn- 
ing the  selfish  ambitions  of  Rome,  holding  ourselves  ready  to  go  for- 
ward to  evoke  a  nobler  and  diviner  spirit  in  those  lands,  which  belong, 
not  to  us,  but  to  "our  Lord,  and  to  His  Christ." 

And  yet  here  we  are,  dreaming  dreams  of  a  "Baptist  Alliance."  We 
cannot  get  away  from  it.  We  dread  the  trick  which  Balak  sought  to 
play  on  Balaam.  "Come  with  me,"  he  said,  "to  another  place,  whence 
thou  shalt  not  see  them  all,  and  curse  me  them  from  thence."  It  is 
always  the  prophet  with  a  limited  vision  who  is  most  free  with  his 
curses.  It  is  from  the  point  of  observation,  whence  only  a  portion  of  the 
camp  of  Israel  is  seen,  that  the  loudest  denunciation  comes.  Great 
principles  pitch  their  white  tents  on  the  vast  plains  of  God's  purposes. 
For  a  moment  we  see  them.  Then  self-interest,  or  ease,  or  a  false  loy- 
alty, or  some  other  Balak  of  our  old  life,  offers  us  a  bribe  to  curse 
them.  We  hunt  out  some  hillock  with  a  narrow  and  prejudiced  outlook, 
whence  we  can  denounce  and  desjjise. 

Those  were  wise  words  of  the  Apostle,  "We  know  in  part."  We  mis- 
take a  segment  of  truth  for  the  circled  completeness  of  the  infinite  wis- 
dom. We  hold  our  own  belief  with  intensitj^,  but  fail  to  relate  it  to  the 
great  totality  of  God's  family,  and  so  are  forever  rejecting  truths  that 
are  the  complements  of  our  own  convictions,  the  allies  of  our  own  re- 
solves. We  explore  some  little  gulf  beside  the  great  broad  sea  of  knowl- 
edge, and  become  so  familiar  Avith  each  wave-washed  rock,  each  sedgy 
inlet,  that  we  grow  bold  and  confident,  and  assert  that  the  whole  bound- 
less ocean  is  enclosed  in  our  narrow  bay.  We  forget  the  tides  that  touch 
on  other  shores,  the  surfs  that  break  on  other  sands. 

Two  great  truths  are  emphasized  by  this  gathering.  They  involve  the 
two  most  serious  mistakes  made  by  religion,  when  it  takes  on  organized 
form.  The  first  is  that  our  individual  beliefs  should  make  us  exclu- 
sive.    There  is  a  necessary  limitation  of  knowledge.    No  single  soul  ever 


Monday,  Jiiiic  1!).J  lUA'oUD  OF  I'JiOCEEDINGS.  7 

swept  by  his  experience  the  entire  yamut  of  Christianity.  The  man  who 
lives  in  Cape  Town  never  sees  the  Great  Dipper,  and  the  man  who  lives 
in  New  York  never  sees  tlie  Southern  Cross,  though  botli  tliese  constella- 
tions shine  brightly  in  the  heavens  each  night.  It  is  a  limitation  born 
of  the  impossibility  of  a  single  human  being  occupying  two  hemis- 
pheres at  one  and  the  same  time.  There  is  nothing  wrong  involved  in 
the  situation.  No  one  would  ever  think  of  condemning  the  inhabitant 
of  Patagonia  because  he  cannot  see  tlie  stars  in  Cassiopea.  They  never 
swim  into  tiiat  ]iart  of  the  sky  which  is  viewed  from  the  region  where  he 
lives. 

Some  day  we  must  realize  that  no  man  ever  sees  the  whole  truth.  We 
differ  in  moral  intensity  and  spiritual  grasp.  "We  fall  naturally  into 
little  groups  of  fervid  mystics  and  cool  pragmatists,  of  mercurial  enthu- 
siasts and  phlegmatic  moralists  by  unalterable  and  ineradicable  ten- 
dencies of  our  characters.  Surround  Thomas  and  John  with  whatever 
environment  you  will,  and  do  you  fancy  you  can  ever  transform  the 
former  into  a  rapt  dreamer,  or  the  latter  into  a  calculating  sceptic?  Let 
Augustine  and  Seneca  drink  the  cup  of  learning  to  its  dregs,  and  do  you 
suppose  that  all  the  culture  in  the  world  will  make  the  former  write 
Stoic  maxims,  or  the  latter  see  visions  of  "The  City  of  God""?  Put 
John  Tauler  and  Charles  Darwin  where  you  will,  and  do  you  fancy  you 
can  ever  turn  the  one  into  a  tabulating  scientist,  or  the  other  into  an 
unregulated  mystic  ?  No !  we  have  here  differences  that  go  deeper  than 
matters  of  opinion — differences  that  arise,  not  from  accidents  of  circum- 
stances, and  place,  and  birth — differences  that  have  a  place  in  the  great 
economj'  of  truth,  and  play  some  important  part  in  the  progressive  pur- 
poses of  God.    Finality  is  to  be  found  in  all,  and  not  in  any  one. 

This  is  not  scepticism.  It  does  not  deny  that  in  the  mind  of  God 
there  is  an  all-comprehensive  plan  of  trutli,  perfect  in  its  symmetry, 
and  complete  in  its  outline.  It  does  not  deny  the  possibility  of  each  one 
of  us  finding  some  form  of  thought,  or  principle  of  action,  that  meets  the 
needs  of  our  experience,  or  expresses  the  faith  of  our  soul.  It  merely 
asks  this  pointed  question:  "When  I  have  found  such  forms,  such  ideals, 
such  systems,  what  attitude  shall  I  adopt  toward  other  men,  whose 
methods  and  thoughts  differ  from  mine?"  Shall  I  claim  tliat  mine  is  the 
final  faith,  the  absolute  truth,  the  way  preferred  by  God,  which  men  re- 
ject because  of  their  blindness,  or  miss  because  of  their  sin?  Shall  I 
set  up  my  way  of  looking  at  truth  as  the  great  goal  of  the  ages,  declaring 
that  all  the  long  labors  of  investigation  and  the  patient  searchings  of 
human  knowledge  are  destined  to  lead  mankind  into  the  narrow  en- 
closure of  my  creed?  Or  shall  I  admit  that  I  only  know  in  part;  that  I 
am  able  to  see  but  a  very  minute  arc  on  the  great  circle  of  absolute 
truth ;  and  that  many  priceless  principles  yet  remain  to  be  learned  by  me 
from  other  men,  who  see  things  clearly  that  now  are  hid  from  my  grop- 
ing and  limited  life? 

This  suggests  the  second  great  truth,  involving  another  mistake  made 
by  organized  religion.  It  is  that  we  can  arrive  at  a  residuum  of  belief, 
a  definite  set  of  propositions,  to  which  we  can  point,  and  say,  "That  is 
Christianity."  Christianity  is  not  a  "least  common  denominator." 
Christianity  is  not  like  a  composite  photograph,  made  up  out  of  that 
which  is  common  to  a  group  of  men,  whose  individuality  has  been 
eliminated,  and  whose  peculiar  opinions  have  been  suppressed.  My  dis- 
tinctive and  personal  views  may  be  precisely  the  contribution  which  God 


8  THE  BAPTIHT  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

intended  I  should  make  to  that  vast  totality  which  is  to  bear  the  name 
of  Christ.  It  is  out  of  the  many  varieties  and  mysterious  forms  of  our 
human  nature,  that  seem  to  be  fitted  by  God  to  grasp  fragments  of  the 
universal  wisdom,  that  the  One  True  Church  must  be  formed.  All  have 
a  right  to  exist.  Not  one  can  claim  to  have  carried  his  compass  and 
surveying-chain  around  the  whole  realm  of  truth.  Not  even  an  Ecumeni- 
cal Council,  or  a  World's  Alliance,  sees  everything,  or  has  a  right  to  play 
the  despot,  and  snatch  the  sovereign  power  from  a  divinely  ordained 
democracy. 

How  is  it  in  the  social  organism?  Is  not  the  State  still  striving  to 
find  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  unity  and  freedom?  We  find  first  a 
great  diversity.  Did  you  never  wonder  where  the  men  all  come  from  to 
perform  the  various  and  peculiar  tasks  of  society?  How  is  it  that  each 
year  just  so  many  men  turn  eagerly  to  painting  pictures,  or  classifying 
mosses,  or  exploring  unknown  lands?  Some  men  are  born  for  the  ocean, 
and  their  first  sniff  of  salt  air  fires  the  soul,  like  an  exiled  Jew's  first 
glimpse  of  the  Holy  City.  Some  men  seem  to  be  built  and  baptized  of 
God  for  the  solution  of  problems  in  mathematics,  and  their  hearts  throb 
as  excitedly  over  the  finish  of  a  labyrinth  in  Calculus  as  did  the  heart  of 
Cortez  when  he  looked  down  on  the  Pacific.  Who  of  us  has  not  some 
musical  friend,  who  seems  good  for  nothing  else?  or  some  mechanical 
friend,  who  can  sit  and  tinker  with  his  back  turned  to  the  Alps?  or  some 
surgical  friend,  who  will  perform  a  delicate  operation  with  as  much  de- 
light as  an  epicure  manifests  over  his  dinner? 

This  situation  jDresents  a  problem  to  society.  Unity  must  be  realized, 
not  by  suppression,  but  by  exjn-ession.  We  cannot  equate  men,  or  shape 
them  in  the  same  mold.  We  cannot  make  them  all  musicians.  What  a 
mad  bacchanalian  festival  of  piping  Pans  and  flute-playing  Apollos  so- 
ciety would  become,  if  she  tried  that.  She  would  have  unity.  She 
would  have  such  complete  unity  that  self-destruction  would  result.  If 
the  wars  and  struggles  of  the  ages  have  taught  us  anything,  it  is  this : 
Society  realizes  its  ideal  just  in  proportion  to  the  freedom  it  allows  to 
the  individual,  to  develop  his  OAvn  personality,  and  follow  his  own  bent. 
The  perfect  State  is  one  that  is  founded  on  that  which  each  man  con- 
tributes.   Its  unity  is  highest  when  its  diversity  is  greatest. 

The  same  principle  governs  the  church.  She  must  learn  to  glory  in 
her  diversity.  She  must  seek  her  unity,  not  in  similarity  of  views,  not  in 
likeness  of  character,  not  in  the  agreement  of  her  members  over  a  set  of 
abstract  propositions;  but  in  that  divine  ideal  that  brings  likeness  out  of 
differences,  and  finds  its  common  bond  in  that  which  each  contributes. 
It  is  our  Baptist  brotherhood  that  first  dreamed  this  dream.  Dimly 
have  we  seen  it.  We  have  blindly  sought  a  unity,  not  of  subtraction,  but 
of  addition.  We  have  sought  to  find  our  common  faith,  not  in  some 
form  of  words  that  expresses  the  least  possible  belief  of  a  Christian,  but 
rather  in  the  fulness  and  largeness  of  an  accumulated  experience,  gath- 
ered from  the  whole  family  of  God.  Our  creed,  if  we  have  one,  is  not  a 
modicum  of  truth,  that  has  been  whittled  down  to  a  generalization;  but 
a  great  passion  for  those  unfolding  principles  and  indefinable  ideals 
which  we  find  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  dared  to  believe 
that  God  "gave  Him  to  be  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the  church." 

Professor  Glover,  in  his  great  Avork  on  "The  Conflict  of  Religions  in 
the  Early  Roman  Empire."  says  this:  "Two  things  stand  out,  when  we 
study  the  character  of  early  Christianity — its  great  complexity  and  va- 


Monday,  Juiu«  10.1  h'KCnUD  OF  rROCEKDIXCH.  9 

riety,  aiul  its  unity  in  the  personality  ot  Jesus  oT  Nazareth."  We  can 
trace  those  two  things  riglit  back  into  the  band  of  cliscii)les  that  o;atliered 
about  Plini  at  the  beginning.  Among  thoin  ^ve  find  two  men,  whose  pres- 
ence there  is  very  suggestive.  "We  find  Simon  the  Zealot,  one  of  the 
fiery  spirits  who  rose  in  insurrection  against  the  taxes  imposed  on  the 
Jews  by  the  Romans;  and  we  find  Matthew  the  Publican,  who  was  em- 
l)hiyed  by  tlie  Roman  Government  in  collecting  tliose  same  taxes.  Both 
of  these  men  believed  in  the  coming  of  a  Messianic  Kingdom.  Imagine 
them  sitting  down  to  fornndate  a  foreign  policy  for  that  kingdom!  What 
a  happy  time  they  would  have  had.  What  fused  them  into  a  common 
brotherhood  Avas  simi)ly  their  love  and  loyalty  to  Christ. 

So  we  welcome  you  here  with  your  |)entecostal  tongues.  Parthians  and 
Medes  may  not  be  able  to  understand  Elamites  and  Mesopotamians. 
Those  who  dwell  in  Judea  and  Cajipadocia  may  have  a  different  way  of 
doing  things  than  is  customary  in  Pontus  and  Asia.  Phrygians  and 
Pamphilians  may  be  tempted  to  think  there  is  something  especially  sa- 
cred about  the  phraseology  in  which  they  express  their  faith.  But  back 
of  it  all  there  will  be  a  common  conviction  and  a  common  love.  The  con- 
viction is  simply  the  Baptist  belief  that  the  church  that  would  represent 
the  religion  of  Christ  in  all  its  fulness  will  be  one  that  allows  most  free- 
dom to  the  various  types  and  tendencies  of  Christian  character  to  ex- 
press their  love,  and  realize  their  aims. 

So  we  welcome  your  various  views.  We  Avant  vieivs.  The  man  who 
looks  up  at  the  Matterhorn  from  Valtournanche  sees  the  same  proud 
peak  as  the  man  who  looks  up  from  Zermatt,  but  how  difTerent  is  the 
vision.  They  view  the  same  mountain,  but  they  do  not  have  the  same 
view  of  the  mountain.  We  rejoice  in  the  majesty  and  sublimity  of  our 
Master.  Not  yet  has  the  mind  of  man  exhausted  him.  That  we  may 
look  away  toward  the  lofty  heights  of  his  purity  and  his  righteousness, 
and  tell  each  other  what  we  see,  is  the  purpose,  I  take  it,  of  this  gather- 
ing. Our  common  faith  is  to  be  found  in  the  Avords  of  the  Apostle,  "that 
in  all  things  he  might  have  the  preeminence." 

Dr.  Conwell:  Brethren,  I  esteem  it  an  honor  indeed  to-day  to  stand 
thus  between  the  people  of  Philadelphia  and  this  great  company  from 
all  parts  of  the  world,  and  T  esteem  it  a  special  privilege  to  introduce  a 
friend,  to  introduce  a  man  of  the  people,  to  introduce  one  of  the  great 
benefactors  of  our  city,  to  introduce  a  man,  back  upon  whose  adminis- 
tration the  future  centuries  will  look  Avith  pride  as  they  see  the  great 
enterprises  he  has  started  going,  the  boulevards  and  parks  and  wharA-es 
and  great  commercial  extensions  which  are  sure  to  come  from  the  plans 
that  the  present  Mayor  of  our  city  has  laid  before  our  people.  We 
esteem  it  a  great  great  kindness  on  his  part  in  such  a  very  busy  life  to 
come  from  his  administration  of  the  public  affairs  of  the  city  to  giA-e 
greetings  to  the  friends  we  Avish  to  Avelcome  to-day.  I  therefore  retreat 
before  the  thought  that  I  should  be  an  introducer  of  one  Avho  around 
the  Avorld  is  knoAvn  among  the  cities  as  one  Avho  is  laying  not  only  the 
foundation  of  a  beautiful  and  great  city  for  Philadelphia,  but  by  doing 
that  is  laying  the  foundations  for  greatness  for  all  the  cities  of  the 
civilized  Avorld.  I  gladly  introduce — if  such  a  word  is  proper — to  this 
company  the  present  ^layor  of  our  city,  the  Honorable  Mr.  Reyburn. 


10  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Mayor  John  E.  Reyburn  was  enthusiastically  received  and  said : 
Dr.  Conwell,  and  those  that  are  here  representing  all  parts  of  the  world, 
I  can  only  say  that  we  extend  to  you  a  greeting  that  brings  with  it  the 
hope  that  your  coming  together  here  may  not  only  result  in  the  great 
good  of  the  church  you  represent  but  that  your  coming  here  may  result 
in  great  good  of  all  men  no  matter  where  they  may  come  from  nor  what 
their  conditions  may  be.  We  believe  that  this  assemblage  coming  here 
as  it  does  will  not  only  see  our  city  but  that  our  city  may  have  the  great 
advantage  of  seeing  you  and  taking  part  not  only  in  addressing  you  but 
in  that  mysterious  almost  indefinable  feeling  that  comes  to  men  when 
they  come  together  and  have  a  common  purpose — the  benefit,  the  uplift- 
ing and  the  strengthening  of  the  great  moral  and  religious  and  with 
them  the  great  civil  movements  that  are  taking  place  in  the  world 
to-day,  that  we  believe  must  come  from  the  deliberations  of  such  a  body 
as  this  here  in  a  city  that  really  gave  to  man  the  right  to  worship,  the 
right  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  without  restraint.  Because  after 
all  the  founder  of  this  city  and  the  founder  of  this  commonwealth  first 
proclaimed  those  principles,  and  the  men  that  came  here  came  here 
with  that  belief  and  with  those  ideas;  and  when  those  who  preceded 
us  in  the  formation  of  our  system  of  government  met  here  it  was  be- 
cause they  felt  that  they  could  talk,  could  reason,  they  could  meet  each 
other  upon  a  common  ground  and  in  that  way  advance  the  great  liberties 
of  man.  So  we  to-day,  and  when  I  say  we  I  mean  our  people,  because 
I  know  how  they  feel — we  greet  you  with  this  feeling  believing  that  it 
must  and  will  redound  to  the  good  of  all  people  from  all  sections  of 
the  world.  To  my  mind  this  convention  really  means  much  more,  and 
as  I  stand  here  to-day  the  head  of  a  government  of  a  million  and  three- 
quarters  of  people,  realizing  as  I  have  had  to  do  for  the  past  four  years 
the  great  multiplicity,  the  great  differences  in  men,  and  believing  as  I 
do  that  they  must  be  met  and  that  they  are  growing  and  pressing  upon 
us,  and  that  in  the  right  government  of  cities,  to  see  the  right  and  to  do 
the  right  is  the  great  question,  that  is  to  come  not  only  to  Philadelphia 
but  to  all  the  world. 

These  great  processions  of  men  and  of  women  and  all  peoples  coming 
together  in  cities  are  creating  a  problem  that  not  only  the  public  offi- 
cers but  all  the  religious  and  moral  bodies  in  the  world  will  have  to  face 
and  study  with  a  broadness  of  view",  with  a  humanity  looking  to  hu- 
manity, looking  to  the  hearts  of  men  and  to  their  souls  and  making 
them  stronger  and  building  them  up  and  teaching  them  and  showing 
them  the  way  that  they  shall  go  for  good.  I  can  say  to  you  frankly  that 
it  sometimes  makes  me  stagger  to  know  what  to  do.  For  examjjle,  on  a 
Sunday  go  out  on  our  streets  and  see  the  children  and  the  young  men 
and  the  men  themselves  congregated  together;  go  to  one  of  our  streets 
and  stand,  aye,  right  on  the  corner  of  this  church,  and  look  up  and  down 
and  see  the  young  men  gathered  together  in  groups.  What  do  they  do? 
They  come  out  there  sometimes  innocently,  always  I  think  innocently, 
but  full  of  animal  spirits,  and  they  do  some  little  thing,  they  guy  some 
man  that  goes  along  because  of  some  peculiaritj"  in  his  apiDearance  or  in 


Monday,  June  19.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  11 

bis  dress,  and  irom  that  little  thing  will  start  some  outrage  that  the 
police  have  to  take  in  hand.  What  are  we  to  do?  We  cannot  shut  them 
all  up,  but  such  bodies  as  this  can  study  and  they  can  see  and  they  can 
suggest  and  they  can  help  by  their  experience  and  their  wisdom.  Com- 
ing from  all  quarters  of  the  world  they  can  study  out  the  problems  and 
they  can  give  some  thought  and  some  idea  by  which  the  authorities  may 
better  know  how  to  govern.  My  friends,  this  question  is  so  great  and 
so  pressing  that  I  cannot  help  seeking  to  impress  it  as  strongly  as  I  can 
upon  you  to  think  of  it,  to  discuss  it,  and  to  give  the  benefit  of  your 
consideration  and  thought  and  belief,  not  only  to  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia but  to  all  the  world.  You  are  men  who  believe  and  think  rightly 
and  you  can  guide  and  I  beg  of  you  to  do  this  thing  with  all  your  hearts 
and  with  all  your  minds  and  with  all  your  souls  because  it  is,  as  I  have 
said,  the  great  question  of  the  day.  I  may  exaggerate  it,  but  I  do  not 
believe  I  do,  because  I  see  so  much  of  it  everywhere,  the  need  of  it. 

It  is  easy  to  make  a  city  beautiful,  it  is  easy  to  make  a  great  commer- 
cial city,  to  solve  all  these  great  problems  of  business;  but  when  it  comes 
to  solving  the  great  questions  of  the  right  government  of  men,  the 
others  sink  into  insignificance.  No  one  man  can  think  it  out;  it  will 
come  and  must  come  from  the  work  of  many  minds  and  many  hearts, 
thinking  of  the  good  of  the  men  and  the  people  of  the  world.  We  are 
all  one  kind  alter  all;  the  same  heart  beats  in  our  breasts,  and  the  same 
soul  God  Almighty  put  into  all  of  us  and  we  must  not  forget  it,  we 
must  think  of  each  other,  of  man,  of  our  fellow-men.  With  this  idea, 
with  the  belief  that  we  will  come  to  a  solution  by  the  combined  thought 
and  wisdom  of  men  of  all  creeds  and  conditions,  I  come  here  to-day  and 
welcome  you  because  I  believe  it  is  one  of  those  steps  that  will  lead  to 
the  great  betterment  and  uplift  of  mankind.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Conwell  :  The  Mayor  has  expressed  the  feeling  of  us  all  in  Phil- 
adelphia, that  the  great  moral  influence  of  this  assembly  will  be  a 
mighty  blessing  to  our  city.  The  next  address  of  welcome  will  be  by 
Dr.  Strong,  of  Rochester,  representing  the  General  Convention  of  the 
Baptists  of  North  America. 

Dr.  Augustus  H.  Strong  was  received  with  applause  and  said :  I 
count  it  one  of  the  great  honors  of  my  life  that  I  am  permitted  on 
behalf  of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Baptists  of  North  America  to 
welcome  to  our  shores  and  to  our  hearts  our  brethren  from  across  the 
seas.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  explain  to  those  dear  brethren  from  foreign 
parts  who  we  are  that  welcome  them.  On  this  continent  we  have  four 
great  Baptist  bands,  the  Baptists  of  Canada,  the  Baptists  of  the  North 
and  West,  the  Baptists  of  the  South,  the  Negro  Baptists,  and  besides  all 
these  a  growing  number  of  Baptists  in  the  adjacent  countries  in  which 
the  Spanish  language  is  spoken.  Each  of  these  groups  has  of  late  years 
shown  a  remarkable  disposition  to  come  together  for  larger  and  more 
effective  service,  and  we  all  are  mustered  under  tlie  one  banner  of  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Baptists  of  North  America  in  the  spirit  of 


12  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Christian  fraternity  and  spiritual  reciprocity  to  fulfil  the  better  the  two 
great  commandments  to  love  God  supremely  and  our  neighbor  as  our- 
self. 

But  we  reach  out  to-day  beyond  our  own  continent  and  gladly  recog- 
nize the  essential  oneness  of  all  those  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
sincerity  and  submit  themselves  to  the  government  of  his  law.  And 
this  Alliance  furnishes  us,  we  think,  with  a  true  type  of  Christian  unity. 
It  is  not  a  unity  of  a  government  or  of  external  organization,  but  it  is 
a  unity  in  Christ,  a  unity  of  the  spirit,  a  unity  which  we  believe  is  pro- 
moted and  upheld  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  Our  Baptist  denomina- 
tion of  late  years  has  been  entering  into  world  relations  like  our  coun- 
try, which  only  a  few  decades  ago  had  little  part  to  play  in  the  politics 
of  the  world,  but  now  is  having  a  very  considerable  part  to  play.  Some 
of  our  distant  possessions  have  been  gained  indeed  by  war,  but  that  war 
was  forced  upon  us,  and  our  influence  I  think  unquestionably  has  been 
for  peace.  We  desire  to  cultivate  all  those  personal  and  social  and 
ecclesiastical  relations  which  would  make  war  forever  impossible.  This 
World  Alliance,  my  brethren,  is  in  itself  a  great  guarantee  that  in 
years  to  come  all  causes  of  dispute  shall  be  settled  not  by  war  but  by 
international  arbitration.  How  shameful  it  would  be  if  after  such  unions 
as  this,  differences  between  brethren  could  ever  be  again  settled  by  ar- 
bitrament of  arms.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to-day  to  welcome  our 
English  brethren  who  have  been  conducting  the  fight  against  tyranny  in 
matters  of  religion.  I  am  proud  of  the  record  of  Lloyd-George — (loud 
applause  and  three  cheers) — that  stalwart  Baptist  who  stands  in  the 
forefront  of  the  British  Government  to-day. 

And  it  is  my  great  pleasure  and  honor  to-day  to  welcome  the  leader 
of  the  great  Non-conformist  movement  in  Great  Britain,  (Applause)  who 
occupies  so  fitly  the  place  of  President  of  this  Alliance.  He  has  suffered 
in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom,  and  we  can  almost  say  that  like  the 
Apostle  Paul  he  bears  in  his  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  All 
America  honors  him,  honors  him  not  only  as  a  successor  in  the  pulpit  of 
MacLaren  and  of  Spurgeon,  but  as  the  captain  of  the  liberal  hosts  in  the 
great  struggle  for  disestablishment  and  separation  of  Church  from  State. 

It  stirs  my  heart  to-day  to  w^elcome  so  many  representatives  of  the 
great  forward  movement  of  evangelical  Christianity  in  Eastern  Europe. 
We  have  sympathized  most  deeply  with  our  brethren,  our  persecuted 
brethren  in  Hungary  and  in  Russia.  Their  bonds  have  galled  us  and 
we  have  suffered  with  them,  but  God  in  his  wise  and  infinite  providence 
has  made  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  the  seed  of  the  Church  and  has 
made  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him  and  the  pouring  out  of  his  gra- 
cious spirit  and  the  conversion  of  thousands  to  our  Baptist  faith  has 
provoked  our  deepest  gratitude.  We  welcome  these  brethren  in  the 
name  of  our  Lord  and  we  pray  that  what  they  see  in  American  Christi- 
anity and  liberty  may  give  them  new  heart  and  new  hope  in  pushing  the 
conquest  of  Christ  in  the  countries  from  which  they  come. 

The  first  Napoleon  was  defeated  only  Avhen  he  ceased  to  attack.  The 
church   that   ceases   to   be   evangelistic   ceases   to   be    evaneelieal.      The 


Monday,  .June  I !».  J  UFA'OUD  OF  I'NOCEEDINGS.  13 

church  that  ceases  to  be  evangelical  very  speedily  ceases  to  exist.  The 
bicycle  can  keep  up  so  long  as  it  keeps  on.  Revival  and  ingathering  are 
the  breath  of  our  Baptist  life.  We  are  created,  not  for  our  conversion 
only,  not  for  our  own  salvation  only,  but  for  the  conversion  and  salva- 
tion of  others.  Just  so  soon  as  we  hide  our  light  in  a  dark  lantern  that 
light  begins  to  go  out.  The  Israel  of  God  under  the  Old  Testament, 
when  it  looked  upon  itself  as  (iod's  special  favorite  and  regarded  outly- 
ing nations  with  contempt,  paid  the  penalty  by  being  exiled  and  scat- 
tered to  the  ends  of  the  earth;  and  the  seven  churches  of  Asia  whose 
candlestick  once  was  brightly  shining,  just  so  soon  as  they  ceased  to 
])ropagate  their  faith,  became  extinct.  We  can  keep  only  as  we  impart. 
As  we  have  freely  received  so  we  must  freely  give.  This  Baptist  World 
Alliance  can  justify  its  existence  only  as  it  makes  an  effort  for  the  con- 
version of  the  world,  and  such  effort  as  this  is  in  direct  line  with  the 
spirit  of  our  time.  We  recognize  the  fact  that  there  is  a  sense  of  unity 
abroad  in  the  earth  that  did  not  exist  half  a  century  ago.  We  sympa- 
thize with  the  massacred  Ai*menians  and  starving  Chinese  as  our  fathers 
did  not.  The  Hague  Tribunal  is  the  answer  to  the  cry  of  humanity  for 
the  rule  of  right  ratlier  than  the  rule  of  force.  India  and  Japan  and 
Persia  and  Turkey  are  waking  to  a  new  national  consciousness,  and  in- 
deed there  is  a  dawning  solidarity  of  the  Orient  to  which  we  need  to  pay 
particular  heed.  This  great  movement  is  too  vast  to  be  the  product  of 
individual  leaders;  it  is  the  result  of  a  mighty  movement  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  on  the  very  heart  of  humanity,  the  Spirit  of  God  moAnng  on  the 
face  of  the  waters  in  days  of  creation  bringing  order  out  of  confusion 
and  cosmos  out  of  chaos. 

For  mankind  is  one  in  spirit  and  an  instinct  bears  along 

Round  the  earth  in  electric  circles  the  swaft  flash  of  right  or  wrong. 

Whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  j'et  humanity's  vast  frame 

Through  its  ocean-sundei*ed  fibres  feel  the  gush  of  joy  or  shame. 

In  the  gain  or  loss  of  each  race  all  the  rest  have  equal  claim. 

So  wrote  James  Russell  Lowell  in  his  poem  entitled  ''The  Present  Cri- 
sis," and  the  title  of  that  poem  is  a  very  significant  one,  for  the  crisis  is 
a  very  present  one  with  us  to-day. 

The  spirit  of  evil  is  striving  to  capture  this  mighty  movement  and  to 
make  it  subserve  its  purj^oses.  Take  China  for  example;  only  a  few 
years  ago  China  was  a  vast  mollusc  without  any  nerve  connections  be- 
tween its  widely  separated  parts;  you  could  slice  off  a  whole  province 
and  yet  the  rest  would  not  feel  the  loss.  All  is  changing  now;  railroads 
and  telegraphs  are  furnishing  the  nerves,  the  newspaper  and  the  post  are 
sending  messages,  a  thrill  of  patriotic  feeling  is  animating  the  body 
politic.  Japanese  success  rouses  national  pride.  China  is  arming  for 
conflict ;  she  will  become  one  of  the  mightiest  nations  of  the  earth 
when  her  four  hundred  millions  are  ready  for  the  fray.  She  can  inun- 
date Europe,  aye,  as  the  Huns  in  the  fifth  century,  and  as  the  Saracens 
in  the  eighth  century,  she  can  threaten  the  very  existence  of  Western 


14  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

chilizations.  Are  the  Christian  nations  ready  to  face  the  solidarity  of 
the  Orient?  I  do  not  know  what  the  battle  of  Armageddon  in  the  Book 
of  Eevelation  means,  but  I  do  know  that  this  growing  solidarity  of  the 
East  must  be  met  by  a  growing  solidarity  of  the  Western  powers,  not  a 
solidarity  of  arms  and  battleships,  but  a  solidarity  of  friendship  and  of 
peaceful  pacts,  a  solidarity  that  has  behind  it  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  No  more  exploitation  of  the  weaker  nations  for  the 
benefit  of  the  strong,  but  a  helping  of  the  weaker  nations  to  take  their 
place  among  the  strong;  no  more  war,  but  arbitration  the  open  door  in 
trade  in  place  of  isolation;  good-will  in  place  of  jealousy;  love  in  place 
of  hate.  These  are  the  Christian  weapons  with  which  we  must  meet  and 
overcome  the  solidarity  of  evil. 

My  brethren,  this  new  self-consciousness  of  nations  must  be  matched 
and  met  by  a  new  self-consciousness  of  denominations.  Our  Baptist 
host,  now  seven  million  strong,  has  a  sense  of  denominational  v;nity  such 
as  it  never  had  before.  Let  it  supplement  this  sense  of  denominational 
unity  with  a  sense  of  its  spiritual  unity  with  all  those  who  love  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sinceritj^  and  submit  themselves  to  the  government 
of  his  law.  Let  this  World  Alliance  take  into  its  heart  the  whole  world 
for  which  Christ  died  as  it  only  can  by  effort  and  prayer  for  the  world's 
conversion.  The  General  Convention  of  the  Baptists  of  North  America 
welcomes  very  heartily  to-day  these  brethren  from  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth  in  hope  and  in  confidence  that  their  meetings  will  inspire  us  all 
with  new  faith  and  new  courage  and  new  zeal  and  new  liberality  and  new 
prayer  for  the  world-wide  triumph  of  Christ  and  his  throne.  (Applause.) 

Dr.  Conwell:  I  thank  you  on  behalf  of  the  world  that  is  seeking  lib- 
erty for  your  tribute  to  Lloyd-George.  I  think  it  would  be  better  for 
England  if  they  celebrated  the  coronation  by  putting  a  majority  in  the 
JBouse  of  Lords  of  men  like  Lloyd-George,  and  I  know  it  would  be  a 
great  deal  better  for  us  if  we  could  fill  up  our  Senate  or  purchase  seats 
for  men  like  him  there  to  do  away  with  the  obstructions  to  arbitration. 
We  are  happy  this  afternoon  to  have  been  represented  by  these  ad- 
dresses; we  are  exceedingly  fortunate  and  ought  to  be  thankful  to  God 
for  the  kind  providence  which  has  preserved  the  life  and  brought  to  us 
the  representative  of  the  inner  heart  of  the  Baptist  movement,  the  gen- 
tleman, the  brother,  the  scholar,  the  pastor,  the  Baptist,  to  whom  such 
eulogy  has  been  given  this  afternoon.    Dr.  Clifford,  of  London. 

Dr.  John  Clifford  was  received  with  cheers  and  said :  My  dear 
friends :  You  make  me  feel  at  home  by  that  sort  of  welcome.  I  had  an 
anticipation  of  it  during  the  meetings  of  the  Convention  last  week  when 
I  was  brought  up  to  this  platform  and  introduced  to  the  gathering  and 
received  not  only  a  Chautauqua  salute,  but  also  some  good  bold  round 
English  ''Hurrahs."  I  felt  at  once  there  were  some  of  my  own  country- 
men here,  and  I  felt  at  home.  I  have  had  no  difficulty  during  the  last 
month  in  attaining  to  that  condition.  Yours  is  a  great  country,  great  in 
extent  of  territory,  great  in  its  population,  great  in  its  commerce,  great  in 


Monday,  June  1!). J  RECOItb  OF  I'ROt'EHDiyCii.  15 

its  ideals,  but  I  have  found  that  you  are  greatest  in  your  generosity  and 
your  liospitality.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  be  in  New  York  and  re- 
ceive manil'estations  of  kindness  (here  that  crowded  a  week.  I 
went  afterward  to  Lake  Mohonk,  to  the  Conierence  there,  a  Peace  Con- 
ference (he  like  of  which  1  have  never  heard  of  before,  and  certainly 
never  had  the  opportunity  of  taking  part  in.  Afterward  1  went  to  Chi- 
cago. I  am  rapidly  acquiring  your  language;  I  find  I  have  had  to  com- 
pile a  new  dictionary,  an  American-English  dictionary,  which  I  am  get- 
ting ready,  and  possibly  may  ask  the  Baptist  Publication  Society  to  put 
it  out,  so  that  when  my  benighted  fellow-countrymen  arrive  here  they 
may  not  be  lost  when  they  hear  such  words  as  ''grouchy."  I  have  had 
to  make  inquiries  in  all  directions  concerning  the  improvements  you 
have  effected  in  the  good  old  Anglo-Saxon  speech,  and  when  I  get  home 
I  shall  have  a  dialect  that  I  think  will  probably  bewilder  my  hearers, 
and  if  I  use  some  of  your  language  I  shall  certainly  find  a  considerable 
number  of  inquirers  waiting  with  questions  after  I  have  delivered  my 
say. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  this  afternoon  to  listen  to  utterances  which 
have  filled  me  with  the  greatest  gratitude,  and  have  set  before  me  a  task 
the  like  of  which  I  have  never  had  to  face.  Again  and  again  it  has  been 
my  opportunity  to  respond  to  welcomes  which  have  been  uttered  in  the 
Old  Country  and  also  in  Berlin,  but  never  have  I  listened  to  a  series  of 
statements  like  those  which  have  been  given  to  us  to-day,  nor  have  I 
found  myself  so  embarrassed  in  the  task  of  expressing  fully  and  ade- 
quately the  gratitude  of  the  visitors  on  this  occasion  to  those  who  have 
given  us  this  heart}-,  this  enthusiastic,  this  most  cordial  welcome.  To 
Dr.  Conwell  I  should  like  to  say,  ''Thank  you"  with  all  my  heart.  It  is 
a  joy  to  meet  him  again;  we  had  him  in  London  and  we  shall  never  for- 
get, certainly  I  shall  never  forget,  some  of  the  stories  he  told  us.  I  am  a 
man  without  stories;  I  have  none,  but  when  Dr.  Conwell  came  to  us  he 
told  us  some  that  I  actually  remembered.  I  have  the  good  fortune  to 
forget  stories,  and  when  they  are  told  to  me  they  still  have  a  wonderful 
perennial  mirth.  Dr.  Conwell 's  stories  stick.  They  have  in  them  a  merit 
which  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  forget.  I  am  sorry  to  find  he  has  been 
suffering  recently  and  I  am  sure  I  am  uttering  what  is  the  fervent  wish 
not  simply  of  the  English,  Scotch,  and  other  folk  who  had  the  privilege 
of  making  his  acquaintance  on  the  other  side  of  the  seas,  but  the  wish 
pf  all  the  visitors  on  this  occasion,  that  his  health  may  be  speedily  re- 
established so  that  he  may  go  forward  w-ith  the  great  work  God  has 
helped  him  to  do  and  for  which  he  carries  so  great  a  burden  of  respon- 
sibility. 

And  what  a  Mayor  you  have  got  in  Philadelphia!  We  grow  mayors  in 
England ;  some  of  them  are  good ;  some  of  them  are  otherwise,  much 
otherwise;  but  I  must  honestly  say  this  that  I  have  never  listened  to  the 
speech  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  a  great  city  with  so  much  religious 
passion  in  it,  so  much  insight,  so  much  clear  perception  of  the  difficul- 
ties that  have  to  be  mastered  in  the  development  of  civic  life,  and  such 
manifest  sincerity  and  consecration  as  I  have  found  in  listening  to  the 


16  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

speech  of  the  Mayor  to-day.  It  is  a  civic  welcome  which  you  have  given 
to  us.  As  I  passed  along  your  streets  and  observed  your  devotion  to  the 
past  in  the  building  of  monuments  to  your  great  men,  in  the  commemora- 
tion of  their  heroic  deeds,  I  discovered  one  day  something  which  ap- 
pealed to  me  instantly.  In  front  of  me  there  actually  stood  on  your  cen- 
tral City  Hall,  clear  in  the  daylight — I  discovered  it  again  illuminated 
at  night — ''Welcome  to  the  Baptist  Convention."  They  have  never  done 
such  thing's  in  Glasgow;  they  have  never  done  such  things  in  Edinburgh; 
they  have  never  done  such  things  in  Old  England.  If  the  day  were  to 
dawn  when  at  the  Mansion  House,  the  great  central  edifice  in  our  city, 
there  were  the  words  ''Welcome  to  the  Baptists  of  the  World,"  I  should 
think  the  millennium  would  come  by  the  next  post.  It  is  a  great  achieve- 
ment that  you  have  scored;  yes,  it  indicates  this,  that  the  statement  of 
your  Dr.  Benedict  of  some  time  ago  that  Philadelphia  was  the  emporium 
of  Baptist  influence  is  not  gas,  but  that  it  describes  a  reality,  that  it  de- 
scribes the  fact  that  you  have  here  more  than  a  hundred  organized 
churches  and  I  think  more  than  fifty  thousand  church-members;  at  any 
rate  you  have  gained  such  recognition  in  the  public  thought  and  in  the 
public  life  of  this  city  that  you  can  have  on  the  central  city  edifice, 
crowned  as  it  is  by  the  statue  of  William  Penn,  the  second  founder  of 
Quakerism,  one  of  the  greatest  men  God  ever  grew — on  that  particular 
edifice  you  have  a  welcome  to  the  Baptist  Convention.  I  hope  it  is  al- 
tered to-day  to  "Welcome  to  the  Baptist  World  Alliance";  if  it  is  not 
try  to  get  that  done;  I  have  no  doubt  you  might  do  it.  But  it  not  only 
indicates  the  fact  that  you  Baptists  in  Philadelphia  have  gained  this  high 
position  but  it  also  shows  this  that  the  Mayor  of  this  city,  and  as  he 
spoke  for  the  people  behind  him,  I  may  say  the  people  of  this  city,  recog- 
nize that  the  churches  of  this  country  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole, 
have  undertaken  not  merely  the  building  up  of  their  own  inner  life  but 
that  they  have  branched  out  over  the  walls  of  their  churches  and  have 
sought  to  make  justice  around  about  men  as  a  common  air,  that  they 
have  striven  to  express  their  sympathy  with  the  laboring  people,  and  to 
get  rid  of  the  slums  of  their  cities,  to  advance  education,  and  in  every 
way  possible  to  secure  those  wider  issues  of  mankind  in  which  humanity 
rejoices  and  which  our  Master  described  as  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  I  rejoice,  therefore,  and  I  would  express  to  the  Mayor  were  he 
present,  on  behalf  of  this  great  assembly  our  most  sincere  and  hearty 
thanks  for  the  welcome  that  has  been  given  us  by  the  representative, 
chief  and  supreme,  of  the  civic  life  of  this  great  municipality. 

But  we  are  come  to  Philadelphia  brethren.  Baptists  are  at  home  in 
Holland  to  a  slight  degree  because  there  are  associations  with  the  found- 
ers of  what  may  be  described  as  modern  Baptist  life;  Baptists  are  at 
home  in  Bedford  as  they  link  themselves  up  with  John  Bunyan;  Baptists 
are  at  home  in  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  in  which  Mr.  Spurgeon 
preached  so  long — and  let  me  remind  you  at  this  juncture  that  this  is 
Mr.  Spurgeon 's  birthday;  had  he  lived  till  now  h^' would  have  been  sev- 
enty-seven years  of  age,  just  two  years  in  front  of  me.  Let  us  give 
thanks  to  God  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts  and  with  all  our  hearts 


:M(m(lay,  June  lit.l  REVORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  17 

for  the  gilt  of  that  t-reat  man  not  only  to  our  Loudon  but  to  the  world, 
whose  influence  is  still  streaming  out  in  many,  many  directions  for  the 
uplifting  of  the  churches  and  for  the  salvation  of  men.  (Audience  stands 
in  recognition  of  this  sentiment.)  I  say  we  are  at  home  in  these  various 
places  but  it  seems  to  me  we  ought  to  be,  and  for  myself  I  am  prepared 
to  assert  that  we  ought  to  be  more  at  home  in  Philadelphia  than  in  any 
other  city  upon  this  earth.  I  do  not  mean  that  I  am  going  to  stay  in 
Philadelphia!  not  at  all.  I  have  a  deacon  with  me  who  is  under  solemn 
covenant  to  take  me  back  to  the  Old  Country.  My  church  has  had  nearly 
fifty-three  years  of  me;  what  a  long-suffering  generation  they  must  be! 
Nevertheless  they  were  very  anxious  that  somebody  should  come  over 
witli  me  lest  you  should  take  hold  of  this  young  man  and  try  to  keep 
him  in  these  freer  climes;  it  was  imagined  he  would  be  vei-y  much  more 
at  home.  But  I  mean  to  go  back  to  the  Old  Country.  London  and  then 
Heaven  has  been  my  motto  for  many,  many  years. 

In  Philadelphia  I  feel  more  at  home  than  I  have  in  any  city  that  I 
have  yet  visited — not  even  Chicago,  and  certainly  not  New  York  would 
be  able  to  detain  me.  If  there  were  a  chance  of  keeping  me  here  it  would 
be  Philadelphia.  Was  it  not  here  that  the  great  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  framed?  Was  it  not  here  that  that  great  charter  of  free- 
dom was  issued  which  not  only  created  the  thirteen  new  States  with 
the  Stars  and  with  the  Stripes,  but  also  sent  pulsing  throughout  the 
whole  of  humanity's  life  a  new  feeling,  a  fresh  emotion,  an  anticipation 
of  the  arrival  of  a  great  democratic  era  in  which  the  people  should  rule 
themselves  for  themselves  and  for  the  good  of  their  brothers  and  the 
glory  of  God  ?  Now,  if  a  Baptist  is  anything  he  is  independent.  He  be- 
lieves in  that  charter,  he  had  it  even  before  it  was  made  in  your  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  had  it  for  his  churches.  In  fact  his  independence  has  been 
during  these  later  years  our  principal  difficulty  Avith  him.  He  is  so  violent- 
ly, so  intensely,  and  with  so  much  exaggeration  independent  that  we  have 
been  obliged  to  think  over  again  the  old  problems  of  personal  liberty  and 
independence,  and  ask  whether  we  have  yet  given  to  them  their  right, 
their  true  setting.  Well,  if  there  is  a  spot  where  it  is  possible  for  inde- 
pendence to  get  its  true  setting,  to  breathe  its  most  healthful  and  quick- 
ening atmosphere,  it  must  be  in  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love,  is  that  not 
so?  (Voices:  Yes.)  What  we  need,  to  establish  our  independence  along 
right  lines,  is  brotherly  love,  what  we  need  to  limit  our  independence  by 
the  action  of  the  individual  possessing  it,  is  brotherly  love,  and  here  we 
are  in  the  city  that,  recognizing  Baptist  independence,  gathers  around  us 
an  air  that  is  so  saturated  with  genuine  affection  for  one  another  and  for 
the  Christ  who  has  saved  us  as  that  we  shall  be  sure  to  go  forward  in 
the  future  shaping  our  church  life, — and  that  is  one  of  the  great  deeds 
that  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  has  to  accomplish — shaping  our  church 
life  so  that  the  weakest  church  will  get  help  from  the  strongest  and  the 
weakest  brother  will  get  help  from  the  strongest,  and  the  wealth  of  all 
will  be  for  the  enriching  of  each  and  the  wealth  of  each  for  the  enriching 
of  all.  It  is  to  Philadeli)hia  we  come,  and  we  come  here  as  a  Baptist 
World  Alliance. 


18  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Now  this  is  the  latest  i^hase  of  Baptist  life,  the  latest  development  of 
our  thought,  emotion,  association.  I  suppose  most  of  you  know  that 
we  are  only  about  six  years  old.  It  was  in  1905  that  this  Alliance  was 
born  and  some  of  you  had  the  joy  of  meeting  in  our  city  at  the  Congress 
over  which  our  beloved  and  revered  friend  Dr.  Alexander  McLaren  pre- 
sided. Since  then  we  have  had  a  gathering  in  Europe,  a  gathering  at 
Berlin,  the  European  Congress,  when  we  met  our  Russian  brethren,  and  we 
spoke  with  great  wisdom  there.  Dr.  Conwell.  The  Kaiser  was  not  far- 
off,  the  Czar  was  within  hearing  also,  consequently  we  spoke  with  very 
great  wisdom,  but  with  intense  sympathy,  and  we  sent  messages  to  our 
brethren  through  those  present,  which  have  been  heart-cheer  and  solace 
and  quickening  for  them  from  that  day  to  this.  The  solitary  souls  that 
had  ascended  the  lofty  heights  of  faith  and  determined  to  keep  the  ram- 
parts against  all  comers  had  found  themselves  encouraged  by  the  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  there  are  some  eight  millions  holding  their  faith, 
standing  on  their  principles,  proclaiming  the  same  Evangel,  and  they  are 
going  forward  with  their  work  with  greater  devotion  and  greater  zeal. 

In  addition  to  that  this  Alliance  has  done  one  remarkable  thing;  it  has 
got  put  into  "Wiestminster  Abbey — now  weigh  this,  because  there  is  a 
world  of  meaning  in  it — a  memorial  window  to  the  great  John  Bunyan, 
author  of  Pilgrim's  Progress.  It  cost  seven  thousand  dollars.  It  is 
already  there,  not  completed,  but  it  is  there  and  I  can  assixre  you  that  it 
is  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  it  will  be  a  gospel  forever,  a  gospel  proclaiming 
the  passing  away  of  the  ei'as  of  ii'on  persecution,  the  passing  away  of  the 
times  of  great  peril  for  the  preachers  of  the  gospel,  the  passing  away 
of  the  period  in  which  one  church  should  be  absolutely  dominant  over 
every  other  church  and  there  should  be  no  freedom  for  the  expression 
of  human  faith  according  to  the  sense  and  feeling  of  the  mind  possessing 
that  faith.  Yes,  it  is  a  great  event.  The  idea  came  to  us  from  America ; 
we  carried  it  out  in  England,  and  amongst  the  things  you  will  have  to 
go  and  see  when  you  pass  over  to  our  country'  will  be  the  John  Bunyan 
window  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Yes,  God  takes  care  of  his  faithful  ser- 
vants. Some  day  Fetler's  name  will  be  thought  of  in  the  same  Avay. 
Some  day  these  sufferers  by  persecution  will  be  thought  of  with  thankful- 
ness as  pioneers  who  have  led  forward  the  army  of  God  toward  the  prize 
of  the  righteousness  for  which  that  army  is  destined. 

We  have  done  something ;  we  have  come  here  to  do  more.  This  is  to  be 
a  gathering  for  business ;  we  are  to  shape  the  future  of  the  Baptist  folk 
as  far  as  we  possibly  can,  to  determine  along  what  lines  our  future  de- 
velopment shall  take  place,  and  our  outlook,  let  me  say,  is  bright  as  the 
brightest.  Never  was  there  a  time,  surely  I  may  say,  when  the  principles 
for  which  we  stand  and  for  which  we  have  fought,  were  so  dominant  in 
the  life  of  the  world  as  to-day.  You  have  referred,  Dr.  Strong,  to  my 
friend  of  twenty  years,  Lloyd-George.  I  should  be  sorrj'  to  call  him  Sir 
Lloyd-George;  I  prefer  him  in  his  native  simplicity.  I  tell  him  this,  he 
may  not  know  it,  but  I  am  perfectly  certain  that  the  Budget  of  1908 
which  created  such  a  consternation  in  our  country,  and  which  brought 
upon  him  the  «»ialedictions  of  all  the  high  and  titled,  and  the  Budget  of 


Monday.  .Tun.' l!).l  HKCOUD   OF   PnoCEEDiyafi.  19 

liHl,  are  simply  the  ;ti)|)lioation  of  Bai)tist  ideas  to  social  life.  I  am  pre- 
pared to  i)rove  it  beibre  any  committee  you  like  to  appoint — simply  the 
application  of  the  ideas  in  which  that  boy  was  trained.  He  was  trained 
in  a  little  Baptist  conventicle,  and  though  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  the  foremost  statesman,  I  venture  to  say,  in  the  British  world,  when 
he  goes  to  that  little  village,  he  attends  that  little  conventicle  and  wor- 
ships with  the  people.  He  is  Avhat  you  may  call  a  working  Baptist.  We 
have  some  people  in  the  Old  Country  who  are  not  working  Baptists ;  they 
may  be  talking  Baptists,  they  may  be  subscribing  Baptists,  but  Lloyd- 
Geoi"«;e  is  a  working  Baptist,  and  God  has  raised  him  up  a  prophet 
statesman  to  incorporate  in  the  legislation  of  our  country  the  great 
principles  for  which  our  fathers  fought  more  than  three  centuries  ago. 

Is  not  our  outlook  bright?  Ought  we  not  to  be  full  of  hope  and 
ready  for  a  complete  consecration?  I  appeal  to  you  friends;  we  have 
not  reached  our  best  in  England  yet;  we  have  got  the  House  of  Lords  on 
its  knees.  That  is  something;  it  is  a  good  attitude;  there  is  hope  in  it. 
They  have  already  confessed  and  distinctly  confessed  tliat  the  principle 
of  hereditary  right  to  legislate  is  a  dead  one  and  never  henceforward 
will  it  have  any  chance  of  resurrection.  We  shall  get  out  of  that  diffi- 
culty I  doubt  not.  Lord  Morley  when  he  was  over  in  this  country  said 
you  have  no  House  of  Lords  and  he  ventured  to  say  this  also,  that  he  did 
not  think  you  were  worse  by  its  absence;  he  said  you  have  no  State  es- 
tablishment of  i"eligion  and  he  ventured  to  affirm  that  your  principle  of 
neutrality  toward  all  eliurehes  was  accompanied  with  as  vigorous  and 
genuine  and  real  religious  life  as  that  with  which  he  was  acquainted  in 
tlie  Old  Country.  We  are  looking  forward  in  the  Old  Coun- 
try. You  are  looking  forward  in  this  land;  you  have  your 
problems  to  solve  and  have  your  great  tasks  given  you  of  God  and  you 
are  ready  surely  in  the  spirit  of  Christ  who  gave  himself  for  our  salva- 
tion to  set  yourselves  to  those  tasks,  assured  that  whether  your  day  be 
long  or  Avhether  it  be  short  you  will  do  your  utmost  so  that  the  Kingdom 
of  our  God  may  come  all  over  the  world  and  tlie  freedom  we  possess  to- 
day shall  be  everybody's  possession,  and  the  justice  which  rules  in  our 
lands  shall  rule  in  all  lands,  and  so  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become 
the  Kingdoms  of  our  God  and  of  his  Christ.     (Loud  applause.) 

Dr.  Conwell:  Brethren,  it  is  the  history  of  this  world  tliat  the  great 
forces  are  often  and  perhaps  always  out  of  sight,  and  the  tbrce  that  has 
made  your  reception  what  it  is,  that  has  made  your  coming  so  conveni- 
ent and  will,  we  hope,  make  you  so  comfortable  and  happy,  is  not  repre- 
sented by  the  speakers  on  this  platform  here  to-day.  There  are  men  be- 
hind the  scenes  doing  the  hard  long  work  of  the  past  month  that  do  not 
come  to  the  front,  that  make  up  a  program  and  leave  themselves  out  of 
it,  and  to  such  men  as  that  we  all  are  under  deep  obligation.  To  men 
like  Rev.  Mr.  Wilbur  and  Rev.  ]\rr.  Steward,  and  more  especially  per- 
haps I  might  mention  Rev.  Howard  Wayne  Smith,  night  and  day  work- 
ing to  make  this  a  success,  wearing  himself  out  in  the  cause  of  his 
brethren.     I  was  going  to  say  this  when  incidentally  someone  tells  me 


20  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

that  he  has  a  notice  to  give  and  so  I  know  he  is  here  and  I  want  to  pre- 
sent to  you  Rev.  Howard  Wayne  Smith. 

Rev.  Howard  WiAyne  Smith:  This  is  the  greatest  pleasure  of  my  life, 
the  privilege  of  serving  the  brethren.     (Makes  announcement.) 

Chairman  Conwell:  What  welcome  can  we  give  to  Brother  Fetler? 
What  can  we  do  more  than  to  rise  and  say  "God  bless  you,"  and  sing 
"Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds  our  hearts  in  Christian  love."  Brother 
Fetler,  we  welcome  you  with  all  our  souls. 

Rev.  William  Fetler,  of  St.  Petersburg:  Beloved  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, I  would  fain  withdraw  myself  from  this  platform  and  from  saj'ing 
anything  to  you  to-day,  and  give  my  place  to  one  of  the  great  veterans 
in  the  army  of  Russian  brothers,  to  one  of  those  perhaps  who  have  been 
in  exile  or  in  prison,  to  our  President,  Mr.  Golayeff,  or  perhaps  Brother 
Stepanoff,  of  Moscow  Baptist  church,  or  Brother  Pavloff  who  has  also 
suffered  so  much.  All  this  kindness  you  have  shown  to  me  just  now  I 
can  luiderstand  that  I  have  to  pass  it  over  to  my  brethren  who  have 
worn  the  chains  which  I  am  sorry  I  have  not  had  the  pleasure  of  ex- 
periencing. Now,  after  all,  here  we  are  in  this  wonderful  city!  It 
seems  that  we  have  just  crossed  the  Jordan  of  Atlantic  and  passed  into 
your  promised  land  with  milk  and  honey  and  all  manner  of  good  things 
flowing  down  there;  and  I  must  say  that  some  of  us  almost  feel  a  little 
seasick  yet  after  that  great  journey  over  the  Atlantic  and  the  wonderful 
sights  we  have  seen  already  in  your  Canaan.  We  saw  the  Anaks  of  your 
skyscrapers;  they  are  high  men  indeed  and  we  have  been  wondering  at 
them;  but  we  have  been  so  pleased  to  find  that  instead  of  making  ef- 
forts to  kill  us  you  have  brought  us  into  a  banqueting  hall,  and  the 
banner  over  us  is  your  Philadelphian  love.  And  in  return  as  you  have 
been  so  kind  in  not  thinking  of  killing  us  except  by  love,  I  do  not  think 
that  we  are  going  to  kill  you.  As  we  see  the  scarlet  line  all  around  here 
(indicating  bunting  decorations)  and  that  is  the  sign  of  peace  between 
all  of  us,  and  this  is  the  fact  that  we  have  been  brought  together  by 
nothing  less  than  the  Blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  blood  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  has  united  not  only  our  heads  but  our  hearts,  this  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  which  we  are  trying  to  preach  as  faithfully  as  men  can 
preach  in  Russia,  and  you  in  other  countries  as  well  and  in  this  country, 
this  has  brought  us  together,  and  I  am  sure  if  not  this  then  nothing  will 
ever  unite  us. 

Now  we  are  so  pleased  not  only  to  find  all  this  kindness  but  also  to 
understand  that  we  have  come  for  a  great  work  here.  As  in  those  old 
phrases  it  is  said,  Brethren,  friends  indeed,  lend  me  your  ears.  We  have 
not  come  for  pastime  but  for  earnestness;  Ave  have  come  as  we  under- 
stand for  great  work  and  this  Baptist  World  Alliance  has  brought  us  to- 
gether for  this  great  work.  It  was  just  now  mentioned  that  the  Baptist 
World  Alliance  was  born  in  the  year  1905,  and  if  so  many  Russians 
are   present    here,    then   I   might   say   perhaps   one   reason   which    is    a 


Monday,  June  l!i. J  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  21 

special  pleasure  to  us,  because  we  have  brought  the  twin  brother  of  this 
Woild  Alliance.  In  the  year  1905  the  religious  liberty  of  Russia  was 
born  ami  we  are  so  glad  to  commemorate  together  tlie  sixth  birthday  of 
the  Baptist  World  Alliance  and  of  tlie  religious  liberty  in  Kussia.  When 
that  liberty  was  proclaimed  then  many  friends  came  and  said,  and  read 
in  the  papers — which  are  by  no  means  always  inspired — I  am  afraid 
that  that  Ukase  of  the  Czar  is  only  on  paper  and  that  it  will  not  be  car- 
ried out.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  so  far  as  Russia  is  concerned  and  that 
religious  libert}^,  that  though  we  have  not  by  any  means  everything  that 
we  as  Baptists  would  like  to  have,  we  are  having  a  great  deal  which  we 
wanted.  Some  people,  of  the  Christian  people,  said.  ''Well  if  we  have  not 
got  everything  we  wanted  we  are  not  going  to  take  what  we  get."  My 
little  bit  of  medicine  i'or  them  was  this:  At  that  time  we  had  in  Russia 
all  the  time  only  dry  ci'usts  of  bread,  and  now  they  have  given  us  a  bit 
of  whole  fresh  baked  black  bread;  let  us  eat  it,  and  I  am  not  going  to 
be  such  a  fool  as  to  say,  "No,  I  won't  take  that  bread  if  you  won't  give 
me  butter  and  cheese  with  it."  We  will  have  the  butter  and  cheese  as 
well  in  the  time  to  come,  and  I  believe  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  is 
going  to  help  us  to  get  it;  but  we  are  enjoying  tremendously  our  black 
bread  after  the  crusts,  and  when  we  get  the  white  bread  you  have  here 
in  Amei'ica,  well,  we  shall  be  more  glad  still.  But  we  breathe  somewhat 
freely  after  all  those  many  years  of  Pobiedonostseff,  Procurator  of  the 
Holy  Synod,  and  all  the  other  men  who  are  trying  to  crush  every  bit 
of  freedom  in  that  country.  We  are  glad,  and  I  think  I  can  freely  say 
that  we  expect  greater  things  still. 

There  is  another  thing  for  which  I  have  personally  to  be  thankful  to 
the  Baptist  World  Alliance.  As  I  suppose  most  of  you  have  heard 
something  about  it.  Just  before  I  had  to  leave  for  this  country  to  enjoy 
the  beautitul  meetings  here,  there  came  a  police  order  from  the  south  of 
Russia;  it  was  passing  a  sentence  that  I  must  be  put  under  police  super- 
vision not  to  escape  from  a  trial  to  be  held  this  autumn  in  Moscow.  I 
asked  the  government  by  all  means  that  they  would  let  me  off.  At  first 
they  would  not  hear  of  it;  then  I  got  to  prayer  and  began  to  ask  the 
Lord  to  soften  the  heart  of  those  Pharaohs,  and  so  they  came  to  the  res- 
cue and  agreed  to  let  me  off  for  five  thousand  roubles,  or  $2,500.  I  had 
not  got  the  money;  Ave  are  poor  folks,  so  I  sent  a  telegram  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  Shakespeare  about  it,  telling  the  situation,  and  the  money  was  com- 
ing as  fast  as  the  telegram  could  bring  it,  bail  or  bonds  of  $2,500,  that 
I  might  be  able  to  attend  here.  I  am  very  thankful,  beloved  brothers 
and  sisters,  for  that  kindness.  A  friend  tells  us  in  England  that  cer- 
tainly the  money  is  never  to  come  back  again  to  England,  but  I  am 
willing  to  be  honest  and  bring  it  back  as  soon  as  I  get  it  back  from  the 
Russian  government. 

Another  thing  that  we  have  to  be  grateful  for  in  the  name  of  the 
Russian  brethren  here  is  that  they  are  also  here  by  the  kindness  of  you 
American  brothers  and  sisters.  They  could  not  have  come ;  many  of  them 
have  been  in  exile,  and  they  have  spent  their  money  and  they  don't  get 
big  salaries  there;  the  best  of  our  ministers  get  from  fifty  to  sixty  pounds 


22  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

a  year,  about  $300  in  your  money,  and  they  cannot  afford  to  have  a  trip 
over  to  your  country.  We  are  grateful  to  Mr.  Shakespeare  who  got  out 
of  your  pockets  something  for  us ;  and  if  he  gets  some  more  we  shall  be 
more  thankful.  We  can  do  with  a  little  bit  of  money  in  Russia  you 
know,  and  esiDecially  for  the  Christian  work.  I  think  my  brethren  here, 
who  sit  down  before  me  can  reciprocate  my  feelings  on  behalf  of  the 
kindnesses  extended  to  us. 

Now,  I  should  like  very  much  if  I  had  not  only  the  Russian  brothers 
and  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  but  also  the  ministers  of  the  Russian 
State  with  me  here  to-day.  I  would  like  to  bring  them  one  by  one  and 
show  them  this  strong  gathering  of  the  Baptists  of  this  country;  and  I 
would  like  the  young  members  of  the  Russian  Duma  to  be  here  to  see 
what  Baptists  are,  and  what  grand  buildings  they  have,  and  what  grand 
men  they  are,  and  what  grand  purposes  they  have  in  their  heart.  The 
word  Duma — I  do  not  think  you  are  all  so  good  in  Russian  vocabulary — 
means  "thought,"  and  if  they  would  come  they  would  be  set  thinking  I 
am  sure  until  they  would  devise  some  liberty  in  a  greater  degree  than 
we  are  enjoying  even  to  this  time.  Some  time  ago  I  was  speaking 
to  a  high  Russian  official,  one  of  the  highest,  to  deal  with  our  religious 
questions  in  Russia.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  corner-stone  laying  of 
the  First  Baptist  Church  in  St.  Petersburg  last  September,  and  I  asked 
this  high  representative  Russian  official  if  he  would  be  so  kind  and  just 
come  and  be  present  at  the  stone  laying  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
St.  Petersburg.  Then  he  declined  on  these  reasons:  He  said,  "You  are 
such  insignificant  folk,  the  Baptists,  and  we  could  not  go  from  the  gov- 
ernment and  be  present  there  because  it  will  be  very  little."  But  I 
said,  ' '  You  went  to  the  Mohammedans  and  the  Buddhists  at  their  stone 
laying  also  last  year  in  St.  Petersburg,  of  their  Buddhist  temple,"  and 
that  same  high  official  went  to  be  present  there.  I  said,  "You  have  been 
there;  why  couldn't  you  come  here?"  "Oh,"  he  said,  "the  Buddhists, 
the  Mohammedans — they  are  five  or  six  million  strong  in  Russia;  they 
have  many  people  in  high  positions," — and  you  know  people  have  not 
yet  escaped  from  looking  on  the  face  of  men  in  Russia — "but  you  Bap- 
tists are  very  small  yet."  Then  I  wanted  to  tell  him,  "Look  here.  Your 
Excellency,  we  are  not  big  but  we  are  going  to  be  big;  the  rising  sun 
has  more  admirers,  as  the  old  saying  says,  than  the  sun  that  goes  down. 
The  Mohammedans  were  big  in  Russia  because  of  their  quantity,  but 
quantity  is  not  always  a  quality.  Now,  we  hope  to  be  as  Baptists  big 
in  quality  and  in  quantity  and  to  prove  to  the  Russian  State  and  the 
Russian  people  what  we  as  Baptists  are  and  what  we  want  to  do."  Why, 
the  Mohammedans  there  are  not  missionary  people  in  Russia  though 
they  were  once.  Well,  our  idea  is  to  spread  the  gospel  as  far  as  it  can 
be  done  in  that  great  country,  and  I  believe  that  it  is  so.  I  do  not 
know  if  many  of  you  are  aware  of  the  fact  of  things  taking  place  in 
Russia.  Mr.  Byford,  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  Commissioner,  can  tell 
you  a  great  deal  of  that  because  he  knows  the  conditions,  but  this  I 
want  to  say,  that  I  believe  so  far  as  I  have  seen  the  development  of  the 
Christian  work  in  Russia,   that  Russia  is  bound  to  become,  as  far  as 


:Mumlay,  JuiK' lii.J  REUUliD  OF  I'ROCJnWIXUS.  23 

Baptist  faith,  and  Baptist  principles  are  concerned,  that  Russia  is  bound 
to  become  the  first  nation  in  Kurope  i'or  Baptist  work  and  tor  Christian 
work,  not  exeludini?  even  (Jreat  Britain — and  I  think  my  Enylish  breth- 
ren will  excuse  that.  I  believe  work  will  develop  on  a  greater  line  than 
even  up  to  this  time.  Why"?  Because  there  has  never  been  a  nation  of 
white  people  of  such  a  population,  of  such  numbers,  in  such  a  wide  area, 
as  the  Russian  nation,  and  no  other  nation  together  with  that  great  bulk 
of  people  was  apt  to  receive  Christian  religion  as  the  Russian  people  do. 

Now,  some  have  said  to  us,  of  course,  as  it  has  been  mentioned,  some 
cruel  things  have  been  done  in  Russia,  chains  and  prison,  etc.  Well, 
there  is  only  one  argument  against  that,  and  I  believe  the  most  logical 
argument  you  can  find  is  that  tliey  have  not  known  better,  they  have 
not  been  told  better,  the  Cossacks  of  Russia  have  not  been  told  better. 
As  soon  as  they  were  told  to  act  in  a  better  way,  we  have  in  the  south 
of  Russia  hundreds  of  Cossack  soldiers  converted  and  some  of  them 
who  now  preach  the  gospel  instead  of  going  against  the  people.  Now, 
my  dear  friends,  that  is  the  power  of  the  gospel  there.  I  have  two  tele- 
grams here  of  this  very  day  in  a  kind  of  way  of  persecution.  I  got  be- 
fore I  left  a  telegram  that  I  was  arrested  in  the  south  of  Russia;  that 
has  not  been  by  the  higher  government,  but  the  arrests  are  taking  place 
through  the  inferior  and  lower  officials  Avho  still  have  to  go  to  school 
in  the  school  of  religious  liberty.  A  telegram  I  got  from  a  friend  in 
south  Russia  where  a  sentence  of  a  month's  imprisonment  was  passed  on 
me  before  I  arrived,  said,  "You  have  "been  arrested  for  a  month."  I 
said,  "No,  I  am  not  arrested,  I  am  yet  free."  So  I  went  for  my  ticket 
and  went  as  fast  as  I  could  to  America  to  escape  that,  and  reserved  my 
holiday,  after  my  hard  labor  in  America,  till  after  I  get  back  to  prison 
in  Russia. 

iVuother  telegram  from  a  pastor  in  the  south  saying  that  the  police 
have  not  been  allowing  them  to  have  meetings  in  the  new  hall.  For 
what  reason?  They  had  sold  their  hall;  one  hall  was  too  low  and  one 
too  high;  the  door  was  wrong  in  one  hall  and  the  staircase  in  the  other 
hall.  Then  they  found  the  proper  hall  with  all  the  necessary  require- 
ments and  then  the  police  told  them  the  hall  could  not  be  opened  because 
it  was  near  a  drinking  saloon.  I  do  not  know  that  they  were  afraid  we 
were  going  to  have  competition  with  the  drinking  saloon,  but  if  they 
were  afraid,  we  want  to  have  them  understand  that  we  are  having  a  com- 
petition with  the  drinking  affair  in  Russia,  and  that  is  one  of  the  things 
we  want  to  carry  out  in  Russia. 

Now,  brothers  and  sisters,  I  don 't  want  to  talk  much  longer,  but  I 
was  going  to  tell  you  for  what  reasons  we  have  come  here.  I  want  to  tell 
you  American  friends  especially  how  we  do  look  upon  you.  You  have 
expressed  your  opinions;  allow  us  to  express  our  opinions.  Now,  first  of 
all,  we  look  upon  you  friends  not  so  much  as  Baptists  but  as  Christians. 
We  have  come  to  you  here  to  learn  more  ot  Christianity;  we  know  very 
little;  we  want  to  learn  more.  Our  people,  the  whole  Russian  nation,  is 
hungry  for  the  gospel.  I  have  opened  twelve  halls  in  three  and  a  half 
years  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  I  have  seen  those  halls  crowded  again  and 


24  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

again  and  again  by  people.  Last  year  Mr.  Byford  was  tbere  at  the  stone 
laying  at  my  main  hall,  holding  nearly  a  thousand  people, 
and  I  could  scarcely  get  rid  of  the  friends  who  were  there  and  I 
had  to  rush  away  myself  from  the  platform  leaving  him  with  some  other 
interpreters,  because  the  people  were  breaking  up  the  door  and  I  had 
to  direct  them  to  another  place  in  another  part  of  the  city,  because  they 
wanted  to  hear  the  gospel.  "We  have  come  to  this  country;  though  most 
of  my  countrymen  do  not  understand  your  language  they  do  understand 
the  language  of  your  heart ;  we  want  to  learn  better  Christianity  than  we 
have  in  Russia;  we  want  to  learn  more  of  Christ.  We  have  not  been  to 
school  enough  to  learn  to  understand  him  well  and  we  trust  you  will 
teach  US.  We  have  been  taught  by  Count  Tolstoy  something  about 
Jesus;  he  has  told  us  about  a  great  philosophical  man,  of  a  man  who 
lived  and  died,  sealing  his  doctrine  by  his  death.  He  has  told  us  Christ 
died  but  not  for  our  sins.  Ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  Russian  educated 
people,  of  the  sixty  thousand  students  of  Moscow  and  the  forty  thousand 
of  St.  Petersburg,  ninety-five  per  cent  are  under  the  influence  of  Tol- 
stoy. Another  thing  he  has  told  us  of  Jesus :  he  died  but  not  that  he 
rose  again  for  our  justification,  and  the  Russian  nation  is  hungry  to 
hear  something  else.  When  I  was  speaking  to  Count  Tolstoy  before  he 
died,  walking  in  his  garden,  and  told  him  I  believed  in  Jesus,  that  he 
rose  again,  because  the  Apostle  Paul  believed,  he  despised  the  idea  and 
these  were  his  words:  He  told  me,  "If  anybody  would  come  and  tell  me 
that  the  risen  Christ  is  walking  in  my  garden  yonder  I  would  not  take 
care  to  go  and  look  at  him. ' '  That  is  the  thing  that  the  people  have  been 
taught  by  this  great  thinker.  Come  and  tell  us  and  make  us  to  vinder- 
stand  better  things. 

And  then,  brothers  and  sisters,  we  have  come  to  you  not  only  as  to 
Christians  but  as  to  brothers  as  well.  You  brothers  and  delegates  from 
Russia,  from  Germany,  from  France,  and  from  the  Slavonic  lands,  from 
the  Balkan  Peninsula,  where  have  you  come,  you  little  brother  of  Eu- 
rope? To  a  giant  American,  to  a  giant  American  Baptist.  You  know 
when  you  had  a  big  brother  in  your  family  and  you  were  quite  small  how 
5^ou  looked  up  to  that  big  brother.  Now,  American  friends,  we  are  look- 
ing up,  and  it  takes  a  great  size  and  good  wide  eyes  before  we  can  get 
everything  of  you.  Big  brothers  often  come  and  help  the  little  brothers, 
and  I  think  even  if  we  don't  ask  much  you  will  see  we  can  be  helped 
a  little  and  we  shall  be  very  thankful  for  that.  Then,  there  is  the  ques- 
tion that  we  look  upon  you  as  fathers;  you  are  fathers  in  Christ,  fathers 
in  the  things  of  God,  fathers  in  understanding;  you  are  fathers  in 
wisdom  and  we  want  to  learn  a  little  from  you — so  many  universities,  so 
many  colleges,  so  many  seminaries  and  we  have  not  got  one.  Now, 
fathers  are  wise  and  instruct  first  in  their  homes,  and  you  have  taken  us 
to  your  homes  and  are  instructing  us  in  these  Alliance  meetings.  Then 
when  the  children  grow  a  little  they  send  them  to  school.  You  make  for 
us  a  great  European  College  for  the  training  of  our  ministers,  you  help 
us  to  have  our  young  brethren  go  there  and  understand  how  better  to 
serve  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     And  another  thing,  fathers,  you  have  got 


Monday,  June  10.]  RECnJW  OF  I'ROCKEDiyOS.  25 

the  money  and  the  boys  liave  not.  Now,  some  friends  have  told  me — 
you  knoAv  I  am  building  the  First  Baptist  Chapel  in  St.  Petersburg — 
and  some  have  told  me  in  this  country,  "Don't  be  too  sanguine  about  it; 
we  have  so  many  appeals."  But  to  whom  can  the  little  boy  go  but  to 
the  father?  If  the  father  has  twelve  children,  well  everyone  has  to  get 
his  share,  and  just  take  us  among  your  family;  I  think  you  have  done 
that  already,  so  I  think  we  shall  have  good  reason  and  good  hope  that 
you  will  do  that. 

My  last  word  is  this,  the  power  of  the  gospel  is  having  a  great  sway  in 
that  country.  I  saw  in  the  winter  palace  of  the  Czar  the  hand  of  John 
the  Baptist;  it  was  a  lifeless  hand.  I  am  not  sure  if  it  was  the  hand 
of  John  the  Baptist,  but  so  it  was  told,  and  I  looked  upon  that  hand  of 
John  the  Baptist  and  I  could  not  get  any  good  out  of  it.  That  was  the 
result  of  my  visit  to  the  winter  palace.  Now  we  have  come  to  America 
and  we  have  had  the  grip  of  a  living  hand,  though  you  are  not  all  John 
the  Baptist,  but  Ave  have  felt  more  good  out  of  your  hand  than  out  of 
that  hand  in  the  winter  palace.  Now.  I  want  to  say  don't  let  us  forget 
to  come  in  touch.  Your  grip  of  hands  of  some  of  us  friends  who  have 
been  in  exile  and  prison,  don't  forget  it;  let  us  have  that  hand  of  yours, 
and  when  we  have  gone  back  to  Russia  to  our  fields  of  labor  then  let  this 
hand  of  yours,  the  Christian  hand,  the  Baptist  hand,  the  brother's  hand, 
the  father's  hand,  the  friend's  hand,  let  this  hand  of  yours  point  out  to 
the  Russian  people  that  there  is  a  living  Saviour,  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
takes  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  (Applause.) 

The  session  was  closed  Avith  the  benediction  by  Dr.  Clifford. 

SECOND  SESSION. 

Monday  Evening,  June  10. 

The  session  was  opened  with  a  dcA-otional  service  conducted  by  Rev. 
F.  W.  Paterson,  of  Edmonton,  Canada. 

The  chair  Avas  taken  by  President  Clifford. 

Chairman:  This  is  tlie  silver  Avedding  day  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  it  Avould  be  a  fitting  thing  for  us  to  send  oi;r  con- 
gratulations. 

By  a  standing  vote  the  audience  concurred  in  the  suggestion,  and  the 
following  message  Avas  accordingly  sent : 

*^His  Excellency  Wm.  H.  Taft, 

"President  of  the  United  States, 

"Washington,  D.  C. 
"The  World's  Baptist  Alliance  in  assembly  gathered,  by  a  unani- 
mous and  rising  vote  of  all  its  delegates  desires  to  express  to  President 
and  Mrs.  Taft  the  congratulations  from  all  the  Baptists  of  the  woi'ld 
upon  this  the  silver  anniversary  of  their  wedding,  and  heartily  and  ur- 
gently invite  the  President  to  visit  our  Convention. 

"World's  Baptist  Alliance." 


26  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Chairman  :  One  of  the  most  interesting  reminiscences  that  we  have 
of  the  Congress  in  our  own  metropolis,  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  was 
the  roll  call  of  nations,  and  we  have  the  privilege  to-night  of  repeating 
that  exhilarating  and  quickening  exercise. 

Responses  for  the  various  countries  were  made  as  follows,  the  dele- 
gates in  each  case  standing  while  their  representative  spoke,  and  at  the 
close  of  his  remarks  joining  in  the  singing  of  their  National  anthem  or 
the  verse  of  a  hymn. 

ENGLAND.— Rev.  J.  W.  Ewing,  President-elect  of  the  Baptist  Union 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland :  Mr.  President,  sisters  and  brothers,  I  am 
very  sorry  to  be  the  spokesman  this  evening;  I  am  here  because  our 
Pi'esident  of  this  year.  Dr.  Edwards,  of  Cardiff,  is  unable  to  be  present, 
owing  to  illness;  his  doctor  would  not  allow  him  to  cross  the  Atlantic 
at  this  time  in  view  of  the  heat  of  the  season.  I  have  to  present  to  you 
in  his  name  the  following  message  from  the  Council  of  the  Baptist  Union 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland:  ''The  Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  sends  through  its  President,  Dr.  Edwards,  coi'dial  greetings  to 
the  second  meeting  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  in  Philadelphia.  It 
rejoices  in  this  representative  gathering  from  the  entire  Baptist  world 
and  prays  that  God's  blessing  may  rest  upon  its  deliberations."  Since 
I  came  upon  the  platform,  ten  minutes  ago,  the  duty  of  representing 
England  has  been  placed  upon  me  and  I  have  therefore  had  no  time  to 
prepare  even  a  three-minute  speech.  I  feel,  however,  I  am  bringing  to 
you  the  cordial  greetings  of  all  the  Baptists  of  England.  There  are  very 
many  thousands  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  across  the  Atlantic  who  are 
thinking  of  us  this  night,  and  praying  for  us  that  God's  blessing  may 
rest  on  this  gathering  and  those  that  follow  it  this  week.  I  believe  there 
is  at  this  moment  an  impulse  of  love  going  out  from  the  Baptists  in 
England  towards  their  brothers  in  all  countries,  to  the  great  company 
of  believers  in  the  United  States  and  in  other  lands,  especially  to  those 
in  lands  of  darkness  and  persecution.  We  may  speak  also  of  a  new  im- 
pulse of  affection  towards  one  another  through  which  we  are  being 
drawn  into  a  more  compact  body,  and  at  the  present  moment  are  devis- 
ing plans  by  which  the  stronger  shall  help  the  weaker  and  be  drawn  into 
a  truer  brotherhood.  There  has  been  an  increasing  tendency  of  late  on 
the  part  of  Baptists  to  take  part  in  public  affairs,  some  in  municipal 
affairs,  others  in  other  lines,  and  one,  Lloyd-George,  is  a  leading  member 
of  the  British  Cabinet.  We  greet  this  Congress;  we  pray  God  that  he 
may  bless  all  our  deliberations  and  guide  us  to  an  issue  for  the  advance- 
ment of  his  kingdom.  We  are  longing  in  England  for  a  new  breath  of 
the  Divine  Spirit,  more  of  the  compassion  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  sin- 
ners, and  we  pray  that  this  meeting  may  result  in  the  quickening  of  our 
hearts  and  the  hearts  of  us  all.     (Applause.) 

Delegation  sang  "God  save  our  King." 

WALES. — Rev.  E.  U.  Thomas,  Carnarvon:  Mr.  Chairman,  it 
o-ives     me     great     pleasure     to     speak     a     word     on     behalf     of  the 


Monday,  June  10. J  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  27 

Baptist  Union  of  Wales.  The  Baptists  of  Wales  believe  in  the 
spirituality  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  therefore  they  are 
against  the  State  Church.  They  also  believe  in  the  voluntari- 
ness of  religion,  and  therefore  have  nothing  to  do  with  any 
kind  of  compulsion  in  religion.  The  Baptists  of  Wiales  have  in  the  past 
produced  men  who  have  studied  the  Book;  the  Bible  has  been  their 
Book,  inasmuch  as  they  have  been  men  of  one  book,  they  have  become 
strong  in  their  convictions,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  they  have  always 
been  in  the  front  of  the  battle  for  religious  liberty.  They  have  suffered 
persecution  in  the  past;  they  are  suffering  some  persecution  to-day.  I 
live  in  a  town  where  stones  were  thrown  at  Baptists  simply  because  they 
were  Baptists;  to-day  they  are  highly  respected  in  the  community,  and 
when  the  call  for  liberty  is  given  forth,  the  Baptists  of  Wales  are  stand- 
ing to  a  man  to  face  all  the  foes  of  liberty  both  civil  and  religious.  We 
have  sent  Baptists  to  America;  we  have  contributed  to  the  successes,  to 
the  great  prosperity  of  America.  We  sent  you  Roger  Williams,  we  sent 
you  John  Miles,  Ave  sent  you  Morgan  John  Rhees,  the  grandson  of  whom 
is  Dr.  Rush  Rhees,  the  President  of  University  of  Rochester  at  this  mo- 
ment. We  sent  you  the  father  and  mother  of  Milton  G.  Evans,  the 
President  of  Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  (Applause.) 
Delegation  sang  a  AVelsh  song. 

SCOTLAND. — Rev.  George  Yuille,  Stirling:  I  come  Mr.  President, 
from  a  land  of  brown  heaths  and  shaggy  woods,  the  land  of  the  mountain 
and  the  flood,  where  the  proud  Atlantic  Ocean  on  Scotland's  firths  and 
bays  rocks  in  perpetual  motion  his  Aveary  waves  to  rest.  I  bring  the 
greetings  of  the  Scottish  Baptist  Union  of  one  hundred  and  twentj^-four 
churches  with  twenty  thousand  members,  represented  here  by  twenty- 
three  delegates.  We  are  among  the  smaller  tribe  of  the  great  Baptist  host, 
but  as  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  was  of  the  least  of  the  tribes  of 
Israel,  so  God  has  raised  up  among  us  men  who  have  rendered  distin- 
guished service  to  his  cause  in  Church  and  State.  From  the  ancient 
castle  of  Stirling  where  I  have  spent  over  forty  years  in  the  ministry 
you  look  out  on  the  Mansion  House  surrounded  by  woods  and  lands  and 
under  the  shelter  of  the  hills.  At  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  it 
belonged  to  Robert  Haldane  who  sold  it  and  devoted  the  proceeds  to 
missionary  work.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother.  Both  became  Bap- 
tists. The  grandson  of  James  Haldane  was  baptized  in  one  of  our  Ed- 
inburgh churches;  he  is  now  Viscount  Haldane,  Minister  of  War  and 
member  of  the  British  Cabinet.  Altliough  Minister  of  War,  he  is  a  man 
of  peace  and  tiie  Arbitration  Treaty  which  is  to  unite  the  flags  of  empire 
and  democracy  in  lasting  union  will  receive  no  warmer  support  from  the 
British  Parliament  than  from  Lord  Haldane.  About  seventeen  years 
ago  a  youth  was  baptized  in  one  of  our  churches  and  afterward  went  to 
Manchester  and  for  fifty  years  Alexander  Maclaren  pursued  what  was  a 
world-wide  ministry,  and  left  on  record  a  monumental  work  which  will 
possibly  last  as  long  as  the  English  speech.  From  the  church  of  my  own 
boyhood  in  the  seaport  where  James  ^Iontgomer>'  was  born,  John  and 


28  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Daniel  McMillan  went  out  to  make  their  way  in  life.  One  of  them  was 
a  printer  who  went  to  London  and  founded  the  firm  of  McMillan  and 
Company.  About  the  same  time  a  working  mason  Avent  to  Canada  and 
became  a  Member  of  Parliament  and  became  Prime  Minister  in  the  Par- 
liament that  he  had  helped  to  form.  When  I  was  here,  twenty-three 
years  ago,  I  was  his  guest  in  Toronto  and  at  that  time  the  name  of  Alex- 
ander Mackenzie  was  known  throughout  America.  (Applause.) 
Scotch  delegation  sang. 

IRELAND. — Rev.  J.  H.  Boyd,  of  London,  Ontario:  Mr.  President  and 
brethren  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  to  me  has  been  deputed  the  task 
of  repi-esenting  the  Emerald  Isle,  the  land  of  grievances.  Ireland  would 
not  be  properly  represented  to-night  without  a  grievance,  so  I  am  here 
to  express  a  grievance  which  is,  that  as  far  as  I  can  see,  Ireland 's  repre- 
sentative is  the  only  one  without  a  distinctive  badge;  that  is  my  griev- 
ance. It  is  not  a  vei*y  serious  one,  you  will  make  it  right  to-morrow,  I 
expect.  I  have  three  things  to  say:  First  of  all,  I  wish  to  express  the 
deep  regret  of  my  brothers  on  the  other  side  that  the  deputation  from 
Ireland  is  so  small.  At  the  last  moment  some  of  the  brethren  who  hoped 
to  be  present  at  this  magnificent  gathering  were  prevented  from  coming, 
so  I  am  here  alone  to-night  to  lepresent  poor  Ireland.  My  second  word 
is  that  I  have  been  requested  by  my  brethren  on  the  other  side  to  convey 
to  you  their  fraternal  greetings,  the  greetings  of  one  of  the  smallest 
but  one  of  the  most  compact  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  a  denomination 
which  has  for  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  kept  the  Flag  of 
the  Cross  flying  in  one  of  the  most  difficult  countries  in  Europe;  I  am 
here  to-night  to  convey  in  their  name  their  fraternal  greetings  to  you 
all.  And  my  third  word  is  this,  that  I  am  proud  to  have  the  honor  to 
represent  Ireland  upon  this  platform,  for  although  she  be  poor  and 
small  and  perhaps  in  some  senses  despised  (Voices,  No,  No) — all  right 
brethren,  I  take  that  back.  (Applause.)  Ireland  has  the  honor  of  having 
sent  to  this  city  the  first  Baptist  minister,  in  the  person  of  Thomas 
Duncan,  who,  in  1684,  came  to  Philadelphia  and  planted  the  first  Baptist 
church  in  this  splendid  city.  Around  that  little  church,  planted  by 
Thomas  Duncan  in  1684,  there  have  gathered  in  this  city  over  a  hun- 
dred splendid  Baptist  churches  with  a  membership  of  about  50,000  bap- 
tized believers.  So  though  I  represent  to-night  a  small  community,  I 
feel  that  I  represent  a  very  noble  people. 

Sings,  ''0  Happy  Day,"  the  audience  joining  in  the  chorus. 

HAITI. — Rev.  L.  Ton  Evans:  As  Brother  Boyd  said  he  rep- 
resented a  country  with  grievances,  I  represent  a  land  of 
i-evolution.  Four  years  ago,  while  traveling  through  Wales  in 
behalf  of  Haiti,  I  remember  about  half-past  twelve  at  night, 
while  I  was  sleeping  quietly  and  resting  peacefully,  I  was  disturbed  out 
of  my  sleep  by  the  sound  of  tom-toms  being  beaten  four  thousand  miles 
away  on  the  mountains  of  Haiti.  There  is  no  difficulty  whatever  in  these 
days  of  wireless  telegraphy  for  each  and  all  of  you  to  believe  that  fact. 
When  I  heard  the  tom-toms  I  saw  the  people  of  Haiti  in  hundreds  and 


Monday,  June  lit.  J  RECORD  OF  I'ROCEEDIMJS.  29 

thousands  assembling  together,  as  you  are  assembled  here  to-night,  for 
worship,  but  when  they  came  together  there  Avas  no  one  to  give  out  the 
hyuni,  *'A1I  Hail  the  Power  oi"  Jesus'  Name";  there  was  no  one  to  pray 
tor  God's  blessing  upon  the  audience;  but  the  moment  they  come  to- 
gether they  drink  tufi,  and  then  begin  to  dance,  and  then  in  that  devil- 
worship  they  offer  up  a  fowl  or  a  goat  or  perchance  offer  up  an  innocent 
infant  child  upon  the  altar  to  satisfy  the  demon;  and  all  this  in  an  island 
three  hundred  miles  off  the  coast  of  Florida,  one  thousand  miles  from  the 
very  spot  that  we  are  worshiping  in  to-night,  right  between  Cuba  and 
Porto  Kico,  eight  times  the  size  of  Porto  Rico,  with  a  million  more  popu- 
lation than  Cuba  and  two  million  more  than  Jamaica  or  Porto  Rico, — 
yet  without  a  great  Baptist  body  carrying  on  Christian  work.  In  less 
than  two  years  I  was  on  top  of  one  of  the  mountains  in  Haiti  and  there 
was  an  old  woman  seventy-five  years  of  age,  Madame  Francois,  who 
called  on  me  and  said,  "I  want  you  to  come  with  me."  She  hastened 
to  a  mud-house  and  began  to  hunt  for  something;  the  other  native  with 
me  came  and  hunted  and  we  found  three  of  those  tom-toms  I  heard 
years  before  in  Wales.  We  carried  them  out  and  when  they  were  all 
piled  on  top  of  one  another,  before  lighting  the  matcli  I  asked,  "May  I 
take  some  of  these  curios  back  to  America  and  England  f  It  is  so  hard  to 
make  those  people  believe  that  there  is  fetishism  and  devil-worship  even 
in  Haiti."  "Oh,"  said  the  old  woman,  "If  you  take  one  of  them  I  will 
be  haunted  the  rest  of  my  life  by  the  devil-god;  no,  burn  them  down  to 
ashes  and  throw  the  ashes  away."  "You  are  right,"  I  said,  and  in  a 
moment  this  match  was  struck  and  there  Avas  a  grand  bon-fire.  It  was 
the  happiest  moment  of  my  life;  I  saw  Jesus  Christ  riding  triumphant 
over  the  mountains  of  Haiti.  The  Southern  and  the  Northern  Baptists 
decided  just  last  week  to  do  work  there. 
Sang  in  Haitien,  "Even  me." 

CUBA. — Mrs.  Molina:  Although  I  feel  very  sorry  for  Mr.  McCall, 
who  was  to  have  been  here  this  evening,  I  am  very  glad  and  I  feel  much 
honored  to  stand  here  in  the  midst  of  this  great  gathering  of  Baptists 
of  all  the  world  to  answer  "Present"  when  the  name  of  Cuba  is  called. 
I  am  not  a  Cuban;  I  am  Spanish  born,  but  my  parents  are  working  there 
in  Cuba  for  the  Master,  and  my  husband,  too,  and  I  have  been  there  for 
two  years  in  the  Women's  American  Home  Mission  Society.  What 
shall  I  tell  you  about  that  beautiful  land?  Not  much  surely  because 
the  time  is  short.  In  that  beautiful  land  of  the  sugar-cane,  the  coffee, 
and  the  big  Royal  Palms,  the  Saviour  has  not  been  known  in  his  loving 
character  until  some  few  years  ago.  The  Catholic  practices  have  led  the 
people  away  from  knowing  of  the  true  Saviour,  but  since  a  i'ew  years  ago 
the  gospel  has  spread  all  throughout  the  island,  and  we  are  trying  to  let 
everyone  know  that  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  be- 
gotten Son;  and  we  hope  and  we  earnestly  pray  that  the  final  triumph 
will  be  the  Lord's.  May  your  most  earnest  prayers  be  W'ith  us,  so  that 
when  the  roll  is  called  up  yonder  and  the  same  nations  are  called,  when 
Cuba's  name  is  called,  she  will  be  there,  too.     (Applause.) 


30  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Singing  by  the  Cuban  delegation  in  Spanish  of  "Stand  up,  Stand  up 
for  Jesus.' 

MEXICO. — Rev.  J.  G.  Chastain:  Mr.  President  and  Members  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance,  I  bring  happy  and  fraternal  greetings  from  the 
National  Baptist  Convention  of  Mexico.  Our  Convention  is  composed  of 
seventy-four  churches  and  three  thousand  and  seven  members ;  we  had  an 
increase  by  baptism  during  the  past  year  of  twenty  per  cent.  Oiir  Con- 
vention is  composed  of  all  the  Baptists  in  the  Republic,  those  connected 
with  the  Northern  or  New  York  Board,  and  also  those  connected  with 
the  Southern  or  Richmond  Board,  and  among  all  of  our  workers,  the 
foreign  missionaries  and  also  the  native  preachers  and  churches,  there 
is  the  most  perfect  harmony.  Our  native  preachers  and  the  members 
are  studying  and  praying  and  giving  of  their  money  to  sustain  and  ex- 
tend the  gospel  more  than  ever  before.  Baptists  were  the  first  to  send 
a  missionary  to  Mexico— James  Ritchie— and  the  first  to  do  foreign 
work.  We  have  done  missionary  work  in  South  America  as  well  as 
among  the  native  tribes  in  Mexico.  The  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  are 
to-day  on  Mexico  because  of  the  recent  troubles,  but  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  these  are  coming  to  a  close  and  there  is  going  to  be  a  reconstruc- 
tion a  changing  of  the  officials  from  the  president  down,  and  two  of  the 
prospective  governors  and  other  officials  are  members  of  evangelical 
churches. 

Sings  in  Spanish,  ''What  a  Friend  we  have  in  Jesus." 

CENTRAL  AMERICA.— Rev.  James  Hayter:  Dear  friends,  a  great 
opportunity  I  consider  this  to  speak  a  word  for  Central  America.  I 
believe  I  am  the  only  representative  here  from  that  country,  with  possi- 
bly one  exception;  I  see  a  brother  over  there  standing  up.  I  think  that 
nature  itself  will  show  the  need  of  these  six  republics  with  six  million 
people,  and  yet  this  evening  as  we  are  here  there  are  only  one  or  two 
missions  established  among  English-siDeaking  people  along  the  coast,  that 
is,  as  far  as  Baptists  go.  These  countries  are  larger  than  France  and 
the  need  there  to-night  is  something  more  than  I  can  describe  to  you  in 
these  three  minutes  that  I  have.  I  want  to  plead  especially  for  the  two 
million  Indians  of  those  countries  who  have  never  had  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ;  I  want  to  plead  to-night,  brethren,  that  the  Baptists  of 
North  America  may  realize  their  responsibility  to  evangelize  what  I  be- 
lieve is  the  Samaria  of  the  Church  of  the  United  States,  and  yet  when 
God  gave  his  commission  to  his  church  in  Jerusalem  he  said  also  ''Go  ye 
also  to  Samaria, ' '  and  he  himself  set  the  example  by  going  to  that  sinful 
Samaritan  woman  and  preaching  the  gospel  to  her.  T  believe  to-night 
that  God  is  going  to  hold  the  churches  of  the  United  States  responsible 
for  the  evangelization  of  Central  and  South  America.  Don 't  be  led  away 
with  the  idea  that  they  are  among  the  Christians;  they  are  not  allotted 
to-day  among  non-Christians,  but  I  assure  you  their  religion  is  dead, 
that  the  majority  of  the  men  in  those  countries  are  atheists  or  agnostics 
or  free-thinkers.    But  I  will  tell  you  too,  that  where  the  gospel  has  been 


Mondiiy,  June  I'.i.J  lilXORD  OF  J'h'OCL'EDIXGN.  31 

preached  those  people  have  accepted  it,  and  to-niglit  tliere  are  from 
seventy-tive  to  one  lumdred  congreiiations  in  those  countries  of  Central 
America  wlio  are  waiting  for  the  Baptist  people  to  come  in  and  take 
tiiem  up.  It  would  he  an  easy  matter  for  me  to  talk  for  three-quarters 
of  an  hour  or  an  hour  on  these  countries  and  their  needs,  but  I  beg  of  you 
in  these  three  minutes  I  have  that  you  will  pray  for  Central  America.  I 
am  glad  that  our  Northern  brethren  have  decided  recently  to  take  up  Bap- 
tist work  in  San  Salvador,  and  I  believe  if  God  leads  them  on,  inside  of 
five  or  ten  years  it  will  be  almost  impossible  for  us  to  tell  what  will  be  the 
result.  I  cannot  sing  alone,  but  I  ask  you  to  join  me  in  one  verse  of 
''Jesus  shall  Reign  where'er  the  Sun,"  because  1  believe  he  is  going  to 
reign  in  Central  America  too. 
Audience  joins  in  singing. 

CHILI. — Rev.  S.  M.  Sowell:  Baptist  work  in  Chili  began,  as  it  has 
begun  in  so  many  countries,  under  the  impulse  of  the  study  of  the  word 
of  God,  and  without  any  impulse  from  any  foreign  society,  and  it  has 
grown  almost  Avholly  Avithout  help  of  outsiders  to  seven  hundred  Bap- 
tists. There  are  thirteen  Baptist  churches,  three  in  and  around  Timuque, 
in  the  southern  part  of  Chili.  A  great  many  of  these  seven  hundred  are 
either  full-blooded  Indians  or  have  a  strong  mixture  of  Indian  blood; 
they  are  country  Baptists,  strong,  robust  fellows,  active,  and  who  love 
to  sing  the  songs  of  Zion.  They  are  working  and  largely  supporting 
themselves;  at  present  they  receive  a  little  support  from  Argentina  and 
Mexico  and  Brazil.  Last  year  sixty-eight  were  baptized.  They  have 
four  native  preachers  and  one  Scotchman  who  has  become  a  pretty  good 
native.  They  have  several  students,  one  of  special  j^rominence  who  is 
studying  at  the  Seminary  at  Rio  Janeiro,  and  who  is  there  preparing  the 
way  for  greater  things.  Chili  is  prepared  for  the  gospel;  it  is  perhaps 
the  best  prepared  of  all  the  South  American  Republics,  with  the  excep- 
tion possibly  of  Brazil.  Chili  is  an  economical  country,  the  people  are 
not  too  much  engrossed  in  material  things,  as  some  other  countries  of 
South  America.  It  is  progressive;  they  are  brave  people,  they  are  good 
fighters,  and  the  Baptists  have  put  on  the  war-paint  in  Chili.  I  am  very 
happy  indeed,  therefore,  to  stand  before  you  to-night  as  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Chilian  Baptist  Union  which  was  organized  about  three 
years  ago.  With  your  permission  I  will  risk  singing,  **A  little  talk  with 
Jesus."     (Applause.) 

Sings  in  Spanish,  the  audience  joining  in  the  chorus  in  English. 

ARGENTINA. — Rev.  Paul  Besson  was  introduced  by  tiie  Chairman 
as  the  man  who  had  changed  the  Constitution  of  Argentina  three  times 
and  each  time  for  the  better.  He  spoke  through  an  interpreter  as  fol- 
lows: I  am  not  a  singer,  I  am  a  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  a  messen- 
ger from  the  Baptist  Churches  of  South  America  and  of  Argentina  and 
I  bring  my  banner  to  the  great  feast  of  Baptist  unity.  After  ten  years 
of  hard  struggle  and  battle  against  Romanism  I  have  sustained  the 
principles  of  William  Penn,  Roger  Williams,  Madison,  Jefferson,  and  the 


32  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Baptists  of  the  whole  world.  I  have  secured  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  between  Christianity  and  Nationality.  After  ten  years  of 
struggle  and  of  petition  through  the  use  of  the  public  papers  and  of 
every  means  possible,  we  have  secured  the  secularization  of  civil  mar- 
riage and  the  registry  of  births  independent  of  priestly  sacrament.  The 
second  victory  in  Argentina  since  the  missionaries  have  come  from  the 
Board  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  has  been  the  official  recognition  by  the 
government  of  the  rights  of  the  Baptists.  But  the  worst  struggle  we 
have  is  against  the  patronage  which  the  president  of  the  republic  gives 
to  Romanism — things  that  he  has  been  taught  by  the  popes  of  Rome. 
You  know  Romanism,  clothed  in  white,  seated  in  Baltimore;  we  know 
her,  clothed  in  black,  represented  by  the  Jesuit  priesthood,  and  also 
clothed  in  red  like  the  woman  of  the  Apocalypse ;  and  thus  it  is  that  our 
war  is  the  sword  to  the  hilt  until  w-e  obtain  our  rights.  Our  faith  is  se- 
cure in  the  sovereignty  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  has  now  received 
the  public  crowning  by  the  Heavenly  Father,  and  in  his  Name  we  will 
succeed.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Prestridge:  We  call  Brother  Besson  the  Martin  Luther  of  Ar- 
gentina. 

Audience  joins  in  singing,  "Onward,  Christian  Soldiers." 

CANADA. — Charles  J.  Holman  :  We  bring  you  from  the  youngest  of 
all  the  nations  fraternal  greetings.  We  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
Northern  Baptists,  because  years  ago  they  sent  across  the  border  mis- 
sionaries to  raise  the  Baptist  Banner  in  Ontario,  and  they  indoctrinated 
us  so  thoroughly  with  regard  for  apostolic  practice  that  we  have  re- 
mained ''Regular  Baptists"  ever  since.  We  are  glad  to  join  hands  with 
the  Baptists  of  the  Mother  Land.  We  like  the  ring  of  the  Welshmen, 
and  we  rejoice  to  meet  the  Baptists  of  the  Southland;  we  know  some- 
what of  their  unswerving  fidelity  to  Baptist  principles,  linked  with  great 
prosperity.  We  give  a  special  greeting  to  those  who  come  from  amid 
great  tribulation, — to  those  from  Russia  and  Roumania  and  the  East, — 
and  we  say  to  those  who  come  from  across  the  sea,  "Don't  miss  Canada, 
we  welcome  you  to  the  Queen  City  of  Toronto,  we  welcome  you  to  the 
great  inland  seas  of  the  Northland,  to  the  waving  wheat  fields  of  the 
West,  and  to  the  mountains  farther  on  with  their  untold  treasure  and  we 
ask  you  to  go — tell  the  nations  of  Europe  Avith  their  bristling  bayonets, 
that  out  in  this  land  two  nations  dwell  side  by  side  without  a  bayonet 
to  mark  the  dividing  line;  and  tell  them  that  in  this  land  Baptists  have 
found  their  deepest  root  and  their  richest  harvest."  We  in  Canada  have 
not  been  much  enamored  with  the  blandishments  of  Christian  union;  we 
believe  this  twentieth  century  to  be  the  Baptist  century,  we  believe  it 
to  be  our  day  of  opportunity,  and  we  do  not  think  that  ills  public  or  that 
ills  religious  will  ever  be  cured  until  there  is  a  flourishing  Baptist  cause 
in  every  hamlet  in  the  land.  When  our  principles  are  fully  understood 
then  will  the  time  be  ripe  for  union— union  not  founded  upon  weak  com- 
promise with  error  but  upon  loyalty  to  truth  and  obedience  to  the 
Master.    Believing  as  we  do  in  Canada  in  the  scripturalness  of  our  views 


Moiuiiiy,  JiiiH- 1!».|  UKCOh'D   OF   l'lx'(>Ci:i:iH MIS.  33 

we  think  we  have  a  Divine  mandate  laid  upon  us  to  proclaim  our  views 
Ihroujih  every  land  and  beside  all  waters  till  he  come.     (Ai)plause.) 

Sinsiini;-  by  (^anadian  delesxalion,  'Mesus,  Wondrous  Saviour,"  also, 
''Cod  Save  the  Kinsi."  followed  by  "-My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee." 

GRANDE  LIGNE  MISSION.— Rev.  G.  U.  Gatks:  1  brin-  to  this 
magnificent  meeting  the  greetings  of  the  Grande  Ligne  Mission  in  its 
seventy-tifth  year,  the  first  mission  for  French  evangelization  in  America. 
I  only  wish  I  had  the  time  to  give  you  its  history.  In  the  beautiful  city 
of  Lausanne,  Switzerland,  a  woman  beautiful  and  comely  in  appearance 
and  nu^nner  and  with  a  refined  and  educated  intellect  and  soul,  found 
herself  a  widow,  and  dressed  in  black  in  her  own  home  she  might  have 
been  heard  saying,  "0  Father,  I  cannot  understand  why  thou  hast 
taken  from  me  my  husband  and  my  only  child.  What  does  it  mean? 
Give  me  light  and  I  will  follow  thee!"  Letters  came  to  her  from  Rev. 
Mr.  Oliver  and  wife  in  Montreal,  who  had  been  her  pastor,  asking  her 
to  come  out  there.  They  had  come  with  the  intent  of  giving  the  gospel 
to  the  Indians  of  the  Western  States,  but  arriving  in  Montreal  in  the  au- 
tumn they  remained  tliere  until  spring,  and  during  the  winter  learned 
that  there  was  one  people  above  all  others  that  seemed  to  need  the  gos- 
pel, and  that  was  the  French  of  Quebec.  Permit  me  to  say  to  you  that 
the  French  of  Quebec  are  nine-sixteenths  of  our  population,  that  the 
French  of  Canada  are  two-fifths  of  the  entire  population,  and  then  in 
Quebec  we  have  one  of  the  largest  provinces  of  the  Dominion,  one  and  a 
half  times  the  size  of  Ontario,  a  province  greater  in  its  extent  of  area 
than  the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  and 
Illinois  all  placed  together.  We  have  a  po})ulation  here  of  nearly  two 
million  of  French  Canadian  subjects  under  the  dominion  of  the  pope  of 
Rome.  To  this  land  in  1835  came  Henrietta  Feller.  Slie  landed  at  New 
York  and  sailed  up  the  Hudson  and  up  Lake  Ciuimplain.  Sailing  up  the 
lake  she  asked  the  captain,  "When  you  cross  the  boundary  between  the 
United  States  and  Canada  tell  me,"  and  he  told  her  when  they  crossed 
the  line,  and  on  the  wet  deck  of  that  steamer  she  kneeled  and  reconse- 
crated herself.  On  October  31,  1835,  she  landed  at  Quebec  and  thence 
by  coach — for  there  was  no  railroad — she  went  to  Montreal,  only  to  find 
that  under  priestly  domination  the  homes  were  closed  against  her.  She 
came  back  to  St.  John,  but  it  was  the  same  there,  and  it  seemed  she  must 
go  back  to  Europe  without  accomplishing  the  i>urpose  of  her  heart. 
(At  this  point  the  speaker  was  stopped  owing  to  the  expiration  of  his 
time.) 

INDIA. — Rev.  Herbert  Anderson:  I  wish  to  say  in  three  words  my 
messa'ze :  first  a  word  of  in  formation,  then  a  word  of  encouragement,  and 
finally  a  word  of  hope.  The  word  of  information  is  this:  On  March 
tenth  last  was  taken  tiie  decennial  census  of  the  great  Indian  Empire; 
we  have  only  got  the  totals  for  that  great  census  but  we  find  that  during 
the  last  decade  the  population  of  India  has  increased  by  10,000,000.  The 
same  sort  of  thing  is  going  on  in  China.     In  India  alone  it  takes  only 


34  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

eighty  years  to  make  one  of  your  little  United  States,  and  I  want  just  to 
drive  that  fact  home,  because  it  means  this,  that  in  the  life  of  this  great 
human  race  the  emphasis  is  gradually  passing  from  the  West  to  the 
East.  The  political  iDroblems  of  the  future  lie  in  the  East;  the  social 
problems,  the  economic  problems,  and  the  religious  problems  that  are 
to  be  faced  by  the  great  Christian  Church  lie  in  the  East.  That  is  the 
word  of  information.  Seeondl}^,  the  word  of  encouragement :  I  feel  it  an 
honor  to  stand  here  to  represent  the  body  of  Baptist  missionaries  who, 
starting  from  Carey  and  Judson,  have  striven  to  bring  India,  Burmah 
and  Ceylon  to  Christ.  How  has  God  blessed  this  work !  I  have  to  report 
that  we  have  there  to-day  as  the  result  of  the  work  of  your  missionaries 
a  church  of  at  least  100,000  members,  a  community  of  nearly  300,- 
000  members,  and  a  church  that  is  growing  in  numbers,  growing  in  influ- 
ence, and  growing  in  spiritual  life;  and  I  say  that  is  a  word  of  encour- 
agement. The  third  and  last  thing  I  wish  to  say  is  a  word  of  hope. 
When  I  look  down  the  list  of  this  roll-call,  and  when  I  go  carefully 
through  the  program  of  this  great  World  Alliance  I  see  that  the  emphasis 
is  on  Christian  nations.  Now  I  rejoice  in  that  because  I  believe  that  the 
Christianization  of  Christian  nations  means  the  Christianization  of  the 
world.  But  surely  the  time  has  come — shall  it  not  be  at  our  next  meet- 
ing, wherever  it  may  be,  that  rejiresentatives  of  the  hosts  that  have 
been  won  for  Christ,  representatives  from  China  and  from  India  and 
from  Burmah  shall  be  here  to  swell  our  numbers.  (Applause.) 

Singing  by  the  Indian  delegates,  ''Nothing  but  the  Blood  of  Jesus." 

SOUTH  AFRICA.— Rev.  Hugo  Gutsche  :  Mr.  Chairman  and  brethren 
of  the  same  household  of  faith,  I  am  delegated  by  the  Soiith  African 
Baptist  Union,  as  well  as  by  our  South  African  Baptist  Missionary  So- 
ciety, to  convey  to  this  august  assemblage  our  cordial  greetings  and  our 
hearty  well-wishes  for  this  Congress.  I  am  grateful  to  God  that  I  am 
favored  to  participate  in  the  blessings  that  are  in  store  for  us  during  this 
convention.  Our  South  African  Baptist  Union  was  formed  thirty-three 
years  ago  with  a  number  of  about  seven  hundred  members,  consisting  of 
English  as  well  as  German  Baptist  churches.  We  have  worked  all  these 
years  in  harmony  and  peace.  We  never  wanted  even  a  court  of  arbitra- 
tion. We  are  thankful  to  God  for  the  increase  as  small  as  it  seems  to 
be.  Our  proportion  of  the  white  population  of  the  Union  of  South  Af- 
rica is  about  three  members  and  about  eight  adherents  to  every  one 
thousand.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  spiritual  giowth  does  not  keep 
l^ace  with  the  material  and  numerical  development  of  our  country.  There 
is  a  spirit  of  hurry  entering  into  the  generation  of  this  day  which  will 
not  allow  men  to  listen  to  the  Voice  of  God  within  them.  Besides  there 
is  this  craving  desire  for  gain  and  money,  which  drives  people  from  one 
place  to  another,  and  puts  upon  our  churches  the  mark  of  our  pioneer- 
ing and  migrating.  Our  missionary  society  shows  that  the  field  is  wide, 
the  men  are  few,  and  our  means  are  slender.  We  report  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-seven  members.  Every  year,  according  to  the  last  report  of 
the  Native  Labor  Commission,   about  forty  per  cent  of  all   aborigines 


Monday.  JuiK-  l!l.  I  ttKCOlU)   OF   I'ROt'lUWl^Gti.  35 

south  of  the  Zambezi  come  down  to  tlie  mines  for  six  months  and  return 
home  to  their  remote  parts,  a  few,  only  a  few,  of  them  having  in  their 
hearts  a  new  light  and  on  their  lips  a  new  message,  to  return  as  messen- 
gers and  bring  home  new  things.     (Applause.) 

VICTORIA,  AUSTRALIA.— Kev.  A.  Gordon  :  Mr.  President,  we  repre- 
sent the  land  of  sunshine  and  of  promise.  I  believe  we  have  come  the 
farthest  of  any  of  the  delegates  to  be  present  at  this  Alliance.  We  have 
come  under  the  spell  of  the  great  Name  that  is  above  every  name  and 
under  the  spell  of  seeing  our  brethren  in  the  face  according  to  the  flesh. 
One  great  result  of  the  last  Alliance  meetings  held  in  London  was  that 
we  in  Australasia  felt  that  we  could  copy  these  meetings  with  advantage 
and  just  before  I  left  we  held  our  second  Australasian  Baptist  Congress. 
And  this  is  the  resolution  which  we  were  requested  to  submit  to  you : 
"That  this  second  Australasian  Baptist  Congress  consisting  of  repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  States  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Dominion  of 
New  Zealand  sends  its  heartiest  greetings  to  the  World's  Baptist  Con- 
gress assembling  in  Philadelphia,  and  we  gladly  forAvard  these  greetings 
by  the  hand  of  our  President.  May  the  blessing  of  the  Congress  flood  the 
whole  Avorld."  Mr.  President,  we  have  memorable  names  in  Victoria, 
names  that  perhaps  are  not  widely  known  but  are  deeply  cherished  by 
us,  and  names  that  charm  Victoria.  We  need  simply  to  recall  the  name 
of  Rev.  Samuel  Chapman,  and  a  few  in  that  great  mother  church  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  Baptist  Convention  in  Victoria,  strong  and 
deep.  Some  of  them  are  here  with  me  to-night  to  express  our  brotherly 
greetings  to  the  great  Alliance.  We  have  our  own  difficulties  and  our 
own  great  hopes  in  Victoria.  It  is  a  new  countx-y  practically.  We  have 
great  experiments  in  legislation.  We  have  heard  ranch  about  religious 
freedom.  Thank  God  we  have  it  absolutely,  and  because  the  Baptist  de- 
nomination appeals  specially  to  the  democratic  spirit  we  Baptists  in 
Victoria  feel  that  we  have  a  special  message  for  our  people  there,  and  it 
has  been  expressed  in  all  our  assemblies  for  years.  We  feel  that  we 
ought  to  interpret  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  national  life  and  that  has 
been  our  great  ambition.     (Applause.) 

SOUTH  AUSTRALIA.— Hev.  A.  N.  Marshall:  Mr.  President,  I  am 
the  only  representative  from  South  Australia  and  there  never  was  a  hymn 
so  built  that  I  could  sing  it,  so  I  am  glad  the  whole  Australian  delegation 
is  to  sing  in  harmony.  I  have  come  eighteen  thousand  miles  to  make 
a  three-minute  speech,  but  I  would  have  belted  the  globe  twice  for  the 
privilege  of  being  here  this  evening.  In  South  Australia's  representa- 
tive one-one  thousandth  of  the  Baptist  world  presents  greetings  to  the 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousandths  here.  When  we  are  at  home 
it  is  surely  like  the  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  without  presump- 
tion I  think  the  South  Australians  would  fain  to-night  become  a  mur- 
mur very  faint  of  the  sound  of  many  waters  which  we  know  to  be  in  this 
great  gathering  to-night.  Australia  is  a  land  of  oddities  and  sanities. 
It  is  said  it  was  founded  by  criminals  who  left  their  countrv  for  their 


36  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

country 's  good,  but  it  is  the  most  crime-free  country  in  the  world  to-day. 
We  have  not  until  recent  years  had  a  single  chair  in  political  science  in 
our  universities  and  yet  Australia  leads  to-day  at  least  some  countries 
outside  the  United  States  in  social  and  political  science,  and  she  is  the 
only  country  of  her  dimensions  that  has  a  Labor  Government.  I  don't 
say  I  am  a  Labor  man,  but  I  Avork  as  hard  as  most  of  them.  Our  big- 
gest animal  too  is  unable  to  walk ;  its  hind  legs  are  too  long  and  its  front 
legs  too  short.  But  it  can  jump,  and  touch  the  grandmothers  of  the 
other  animals  of  the  world,  for  it  belongs  to  an  older  tribe.  Our  birds 
they  say,  don't  sing,  but  we  have  one  that  can  laugh  and  that  repre- 
sents the  merriment  and  joy  of  that  beauteous  Southern  land.  I  am  re- 
minded by  the  fact  that  my  three  minutes  are  passing  of  the  three  en- 
tries the  boy  made  in  his  diary.  The  first  day  he  said,  ''Hired  out"; 
the  second  day  he  Avrote,  "Tired  out";  the  third  day,  "Fired  out." 
South  Australia  does  not  speak  of  her  statesmen  or  of  her  schools  or  of 
her  great  men.  She  doesn't  say,  "Bring  me  men  to  match  my  moun- 
tains," for  she  has  none,  but  she  does  say,  and  this  is  my  mission  to- 
night, "Bring  me  men  to  match  my  plains,  men  with  empires  in  their 
purpose  and  new  eras  in  their  brains."     (Applause.) 

WESTERN  AUSTRALIA.— Geo.  H.  Cargeeg:  Mr.  President  and 
Christian  friends,  I  am  not  a  "Reverend';  (referring  to  his  introduc- 
tion as  The  Rev.  Geo.  H.  Cargeeg)  I  am  a  layman  and  the  president  of 
the  Baptist  Society  this  year  as  also  for  four  years  before.  I  come  from 
a  country  one-third  the  size  of  yours  I  believe.  Mr.  Gordon  states  he 
came  from  the  farthest  point  of  any  delegate.  I  think  I  came  five  hun- 
dred miles  farther.  Western  Australia,  I  believe,  is  the  farthest  point 
by  any  conveyance  to  this  city.  I  would  like  to  say  that  our  people  are 
but  few  in  number  but  they  have  big  plans  for  work.  We  have  a  mil- 
lion square  miles  of  territory,  very  nearly  six  hundred  million  acres  any- 
how, and  we  only  have  for  that  about  three  hundred  thousand  people.  We 
have  one  thousand  and  fifty  members  in  the  Baptist  churches.  When 
I  went  there  sixteen  years  ago  there  was  no  Baptist  Union.  Soon  after- 
wards it  was  formed  and  now  we  have  sixty-four  preaching  stations. 
For  that  we  have  only  ten  ministers,  ten  home  missionaries  and  about 
sixty  lay  preachers.  Our  work  is  very  hard  indeed  but  we  try  all  we 
can  to  hold  up  the  Baptist  banner  in  our  country.  I  would  like  to  say 
that  our  friends  send  greetings  to  you.  They  indeed  pray  that  you  may 
have  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  and  that  his  kingdom  may  be  ex- 
tended and  Jesus  Christ  may  be  glorified.  I  waflt  to  say  one  little  thing 
that  may  be  of  interest  to  you  with  regard  to  the  Baptists  of  Western 
Australia.  Somebody  has  said  that  the  criminals  came  there  some 
years  ago;  Avell,  that  is  so,  it  was  a  convict  settlement,  so  I  suppose  no 
Baptists  were  sent  there.  For  fifty  years  we  had  no  Union  so  it  is  pos- 
sible we  may  hope  for  good  things  with  the  little  number  we  have. 
There  is  one  other  thing  I  would  like  to  remark  so  that  you  maj^  know 
our  difficulties  and  we  may  have  your  prayers,  and  that  is  this,  that 
all  the  other  denominations  in  Western  Australia  have  had  State  aid  in 


MoiKiiiv.  .Inn.    r.i.l  UIAOIIU   OF  I'lUH'lll'J)! SCH.  37 

larm'  propoilioii,  because  tliey  were  tliere  earlier  tlian  we,  with  one  ex- 
cepliou — (lie  Cliurch  of  Christ — they  were  uiven  larye  pieces  of  land  out 
of  which  ui'eat  reveiiucs  are  now  beinn'  made.  Our  thousand  people  have 
to  compete  with  all  that.  We  are  raising  at  the  rate  of  three  pounds 
per  head.  There  is  just  the  possibility,  if  no  help  comes  to  us,  that  we 
will  have  to  abandon  some  of  our  properties,  because  we  require  help. 
(Applause.) 

NEW  ZEALAND.— Kkv.  K.  S.  Gray:  Mr.  President.  I  am  commis- 
sioned by  the  most  southerly  Baptist  Union  in  the  world  to  con<iratulate 
you  on  being  President  of  this  Congress  and  to  congratulate  the  Con- 
gress on  having  such  a  President.  And  then  I  am  to  bear  the  warmest 
felicitations  from  the  Baptists  of  New  Zealand  to  the  Baptists  of  the 
world.  I  would  like  you  to  understand  that  New  Zealand  is  not  in 
Australia  and  that  Australia  has  gotten  most  of  her  ideas  in  labor  legis- 
lation and  other  social  reforms  outside  herself  and  from  a  country  that 
does  not  bulk  quite  so  large  as  she  does;  and  I  would  like  you  to  under- 
stand that  Mr.  Marshall  has  not  come  farther  than  anybody  else  to  this 
convention,  although  he  has  come  eighteen  tliousand  miles,  nor  Mr. 
Cargeeg,  though  he  came  eighteen  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  and  said 
there  was  no  conveyance  from  any  place  further.  I  came  two  thousand 
miles  farther  than  that  and  I  think  I  came  by  a  conveyance,  and  it 
jumped  and  kicked  and  behaved  itself  so  badly  I  was  awfully  seasick 
all  the  time  I  Avas  on  it,  so  I  am  sure  I  came  by  conveyance.  And  I  came 
farther  than  any  other  delegate  to  this  congress — twenty  thousand 
miles — because  I  decided  to  come  in  by  your  front  door.  New  York.  The 
Bajitist  Union  consists  of  forty-three  churches,  thirty  preaching  sta- 
tions and  thirty  ministers.  We  open  one  new  church  and  sometimes  two 
every  year.  We  raise  per  head  of  this  membership  for  home  missions 
about  3s.  6d.,  Avhieh  is  equal  to  your  dollar  very  nearly;  we  raise  per 
head  for  foreign  missions  I  think  more  than  any  other  nation  I  know  of 
in  the  world,  somewhat  more  than  $2.00  per  head  of  its  membership  for 
foreign  missions.  We  have  two  stations  in  India  where  we  cover  a  popu- 
lation of  a  million  and  have  one  of  the  best  equipped  hospitals  there. 
We  have  seven  New  Zealand  workers  and  fifteen  native  workers;  in  our 
dispensary  and  hospitals  we  attend  to  about  fifteen  thousand  patients 
every  year.  New  Zealand,  as  you  know,  is  conspicuous  for  her  efforts  in 
social  reform,  and  in  two  great  particulars  she  is  leading  the  world,  and 
in  those  two  particulars  Baptist  men  are  at  the  head  of  her  social  re- 
form work.  Through  one  of  our  men.  Rev.  J.  J.  North — largely  owing  to 
him  at  any  rate — we  brought  about  the  enactment  of  a  law  which  has 
absolutely  destroye*!  book-making  in  our  country:  we  have  no  book- 
nu\kers  who  can  legally  can*y  on  their  work.  We  are  going  to  show 
the  world,  we  think — because  we  are  only  a  small  people  and  have  an 
excellent  opportunity  of  doing  it — what  can  be  done  and  ought  to  be 
done  in  the  matter  of  licensing  reform.  Next  November  w-e  shall  take 
for  the  first  time  in  the  world,  by  any  nation,  a  vote  of  our  j^eople  for 


38  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  extinction  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  women  will  vote  as  well  as  men. 
(Applause.) 
Australasian  delegates  sing,  ''God  Save  the  King." 

BAHAMAS. — MoRNAY  Willia:iis:  Mr.  President,  I  represent,  I  sup- 
pose, the  smallest  constituency  of  any  who  have  spoken  or  who  will  speak 
here,  and  yet,  proud  as  I  should  be  to  represent  that  honorable  princi- 
pality of  Wales  from  which  my  grandfather  came  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  ago,  proud  as  I  should  be  to  represent  the  Empire  State, 
which  is  my  home,  I  am  equally  proud  to  stand  here  and  represent  those 
few  coral  islands  on  the  great  Bahama  Banks,  not  because  of  the  num- 
ber of  men  there — with  black  faces  most  of  them, — but  because  behind 
them  whenever  I  call  up  the  vision  of  those  thirty-one  preaching  sta- 
tions it  is  the  face  of  a  white  man  I  see  tanned  by  many  suns  and  many 
winds,  but  with  a  crown  of  white  hair  given  him  by  many  years  and 
many  sorrows  in  the  service.  You  do  well,  men  and  women,  you  who 
have  read  the  story  of  Dr.  Grenfell  on  the  coast  of  Labrador  in  his  min- 
istry to  the  fishermen,  but  you  do  not  well  that  you  do  not  place  beside 
him  the  name  of  Daniel  Wilshire,  who  for  thirty-three  years  has  sailed 
the  seas  of  the  Caribbees,  going  alone  for  the  most  part  from  island  to 
island  laboring  there.  You  might  say  it  is  a  travel  between  two  graves, 
that  shallow  grave  dug  in  the  coral  rock  on  the  island  of  New  Provi- 
dence which  contains  the  body  of  his  beloved  wife,  and  the  one  on  the 
slopes  of  the  Rockies  of  Denver,  which  contains  the  body  of  his  eldest 
son;  but  you  know  little  of  Christianity  and  little  of  the  man  if  you 
suppose  that  death  makes  aught  to  the  Christian  but  inspiration.  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  do  as  you  have  requested  your  representatives,  to 
sing,  for  I  cannot  sing  a  note,  but  I  will  say  these  words  in  closing,  the 
words  of  Tennyson,  the  words  that  Tennyson  Avrote  long  ago,  dictated  on 
his  deathbed : 

When  the  dim  hour  clothed  in  black 

Calls  the  dreams  about  my  bed. 
Call  me  not  so  often  back. 

Silent  voices  of  the   dead 
To  the  lowland  waste  behind  me 

And  the  sunlight  that  is  gone; 
Call  me  rather,  silent  voices. 

Forward  to  the  starry  track, 
Climbing  up  the  heights  beyond  me 

On  and  always  on. 

Because  that  is  true,  that  little  island  group,  those  dark  voices,  and  that 
one  white-skinned  man  stand  to-day  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  know 
him  as  one  of  the  best  representatives  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth. 

BOHEMIA. — Rev.  J.  Novotny  :  Mr.  President  and  brethren :  Kind 
regards  from  the  heart   of  Europe — Bohemia,  from   the  country  which 


.MoiKlay,  .liiiu-  1!>.J  h'KCOh'l)  OF   I'I<'<)CJ:KD1  .\<1H.  39 

started  the  Reformation,  which  was  the  first  and  purest  Protestant 
country  in  the  whole  world  one  hundred  years  before  the  German  Re- 
formation. Two  of  the  irreatest  sons  of  our  nation  have  laid  down  their 
lives  for  the  freedom  of  conscience.  They  were  the  first  men  who 
preaclied  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  John  Hus  and  Jerome  of  Prague. 
Bohemia  has  the  honor  to  have  the  first  printed  Bible  in  the  whole 
world,  and  to  have  the  first  printed  hymn-book  in  the  living  tongue;  but 
there  is  especially  one  epoch  in  our  history  which  is  very  interesting  and 
shows  us  the  strong  tie  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  and  the  Bohe- 
mians. When  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Bohe- 
mians already  Protestants  they  sent  to  Scotland  a  missionary  and  he 
was  burned  there  after  three  years.  Bohemia  was  made  Roman  Catholic 
with  sword  and  fire  by  the  German-Austrian  army.  Everybody  who 
would  not  be  a  Roman  Catholic  was  obliged  to  die  or  leave  the  coun- 
try. But  it  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world  that  this  nation  starts  to 
live  again.  It  is  a  real  resurrection  and  in  four  years  on  the  five  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  death  of  John  Hus  (in  1915)  there  will  be  a 
final  settlement  of  the  question  of  Bohemia.  I  hope  I  will  see  you  all 
in  Prague  in  1915.  We  use  on  the  Continent  very  often  the  sentence, 
''It  is  impossible."  I  am  only  a  few  hours  in  America,  but  I  see  the 
Americans  don't  know  the  sentence.  I  thought  many  things  were  im- 
possible; I  see  in  America  it  is  possible.  Well,  it  seems  to  me  perliaps 
and  it  seems  to  you  it  is  impossible  to  enlarge  your  heart  any  more  and 
to  find  a  little  corner  for  your  Bohemian  brother;  but  big  men  have  big 
hearts  and  the  big  American  brother  has  a  big  heart  I  think,  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  find  a  little  corner  for  your  Bohemian  brother  in  j'our  big 
heart.  I  am  a  young  man  and  I  have  very  little  experience,  but  I  trust 
in  my  God  and  I  have  confidence  in  your  help,  and  I  dare  say  with  all 
my  young  passion  and  enthusiasm — "Bohemia  for  Christ."  (Applause.) 
Messrs.  Novotny  and  Capek  sang  a  duet. 

MORAVIA. — Rev.  Norbert  F.  Capek  :  Mr.  President  and  dear  friends, 
I  was  quite  surprised  to  see  my  name  on  the  roll-call  and  I  speak  not 
prepared.  Moravia  was  the  first  Slavonic  land  which  accepted  Christi- 
anity, the  key  to  the  other  Slavonic  lands.  It  was  also  the  cradle  and 
the  refuge  of  the  old  so-called  Anabaptists,  and  then  it  was  the  land  of 
the  great  Comenius.  But  this  land  was  struck,  it  was  beaten,  it  was 
wounded,  its  old  heroes  shed  their  blood  for  the  religious  freedom  of 
Europe,  and  this  blood  of  these  old  heroes  of  Moravia  begins  to  circu- 
late again  in  our  veins.  Moravia  is  awaking  again.  It  is  only  three 
years  ago  that  a  society  was  formed  of  Roman  Catholics,  which  has  to- 
day sixty  thousand  members,  people  who  are  tired  of  the  tyrannical  and 
superstitious  system  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  are  looking  for 
a  new  credible  religion;  and  I  may  add  of  the  Baptists  in  Moravia  that 
twelve  years  ago  there  were  no  Baptists  in  tlie  country,  but  to-day  the 
little  flag  of  Baptists  is  leading  among  the  sixty  thousand  Roman  Cath- 
olics, and  I  myself  am  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee.  You  see 
that  there  is  a  great  opportunity  for  the  great  Baptist  family.     This 


40  THE  BAPTLST   WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

movement,   as  it  began,  will  remain  a  Baptist  movement  and  Moravia 
will  become  a  Baptist  country,  if  the  Baptists  will.     (Applause.) 

BULGARIA. — Rev.  P.  Doycheff:  Dear  brothers  and  sisters,  it  gives 
me  great  privilege  to  stand  before  you  this  evening  and  address  you  for 
three  minutes.  I  have  not  come  from  Bulgaria  to  address  you  just  for 
three  minutes  but  for  a  little  longer  time,  and  to  do  that  I  have  brought 
here  a  book  entitled  ' '  Bulgaria  of  To-day, ' '  and  I  wish  to  present  it  to  my 
dear  beloved  friend,  Dr.  Prestridge,  with  whom  I  have  been  acquainted 
with  correspondence.  I  will  give  it  to  him  and  he  will  let  you  know  what 
is  in  that  book  through  the  press.  (Hands  large  volume  to  Dr.  Prest- 
ridge.) Such  a  book  I  have  left  in  London,  England,  for  Brother 
Shakespeare  also,  so  that  he  will  be  kind  enough  to  let  our  English 
friends  know  what  is  going  on  in  Bulgaria.  I  wish  to  tell  you  what  I 
have  been  doing  for  the  last  nine  years.  I  went  in  a  town  called 
Tchirpan  just  nine  years  ago  as  a  missionary,  the  place  being  new,  the 
people  opposed  to  my  preaching  a  great  deal.  They  have  beaten  me  two 
or  three  times  in  the  market-place  for  attempting  to  sell  the  Scriptures 
and  to  preach  in  the  open  air,  and  also  they  have  broken  the  windows 
of  my  house  several  times.  But  after  all  they  began  to  love  me  because 
they  understood  that  I  am  harmless  and  have  come  there  to  i^reach 
Christ  and  him  crucified,  and  during  that  time  I  have  baptized  over  sixty 
persons,  secured  a  house  for  worship,  built  a  parsonage  for  living,  and 
have  it  all  paid  for.  Among  the  members  of  my  church  there  are  three 
of  them  well  educated  and  they  are  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ 
preaching  the  glad  tidings  in  various  places  in  Bulgaria.  One  of  them  I 
have  sent  in  the  beginning  of  this  year  to  preach  in  a  city  twice  as 
large  as  Tchirpan  and  he  has  been  successful  over  there,  several  per- 
sons are  converted,  and  the  Bishop  of  the  Greek  Church  hearing  of  them 
wrote  twice  to  the  governor  of  that  place  to  drive  him  out  of  the  place, 
but  he  was  not  able  to  do  it  because  we  have  the  perfect  liberty  of  Bul- 
garia, and  he  was  not  able  to  take  advantage.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Doyehet¥  sang  a  duet. 

DENMARK. — Rev,  T.  Olsen  :  I  bring  greetings  from  the  Danish  Bap- 
tists to  this  gTeat  assembly.  You  all  know  Denmark,  I  sui^pose ;  it  is 
one  of  the  three  Scandinavian  lands,  the  smallest  of  them  in  extension. 
It  has  no  mountains,  it  is  a  land  of  plains,  something  like  your  prairies 
out  West,  but  its  population  is  like  that  of  Norway  in  number  and  half 
or  one-third  that  of  Sweden.  You  Americans  know  our  people;  many 
of  them  live  over  here,  I  think  between  three  and  four  hundred  thousand, 
and  there  are  as  many  Danisii  Baptists  in  America,  I  think,  as  there  are 
in  Denmark,  that  is  about  four  thousand.  Now,  you  know  Denmark  is 
one  of  those  Lutheran  lands  where  Baptist  work  is  quite  difficult.  The 
bitter  words  of  the  great  reformer  against  the  Wiederteufel,  the  Ana- 
baptists, have  sunk  so  deep  into  the  hearts  of  his  followers  that  they 
never  can  forget  them;  and  the  Baptists  in  Denmark,  as  Baptists  every- 
where, believe  in  the  Bible  and  do  not  want  anything  of  the  catechism. 


Monday,  Juiu'  1!).]  lU.CiUiD   OF   I'liOCKEDiyClfi.  41 

Thej-  want  the  Bible  and  tliey  believe  in  the  blood  of  Christ  as  the  only 
means  of  salvation,  and  they  believe  in  believers'  baptism,  and  to  these 
truths  they  have  borne  witness.  Years  ago  the  Baptists  of  Denmark 
were  persecuted;  it  is  not  so  now  but  there  are  many  barriers  yet  to  be 
broken  down.  Some  of  them  have  fallen  and  they  are  fallinij  one  after 
another  and  giving  away  for  more  evangelical  Christianity,  and  we 
Baptists  of  Denmark  feel  it  as  our  great  privilege  to  bear  witness  to 
evangelical  truth  among  our  countrymen.  As  I  said  there  are  now  a  lit- 
tle over  tour  thousand  Baptists  in  Denmark,  and  from  these  Baptists 
and  from  these  churches  I  send  greetings  to  this  assembly  and  to  tlie 
Baptists  of  America.     (Applause.) 

ESTHONIA.— Kev.  A.  K.  Podin:  Mr.  President  and  dear  Christian 
friends,  I  represent  this  evening  the  Baptist  church  of  Esthonia,  one  of 
the  Provinces  over  which  the  flag  of  our  Czar  is  flying.  I  cannot  say  that 
1  am  bringing  a  very  tall  man  before  you  but  just  a  little  Baptist  to 
reckon  with.  Our  Baptist  church  is  only  twenty-seven  years  old,  and  our 
Baptist  church  has  suffered  the  same  from  our  countrymen  as  the 
.Vpnslle  Paul  said  to  the  Thessalonians  that  the  Jews  liad  suffered  from 
their  countrymen.  Our  churches  that  at  i^resent  exist  are  twenty-two, 
with  a  membership  of  nearly  two  thousand  five  hundred.  It  is  a  very 
small  number  but  you  must  remember  that  this  nationality  is  of  a  mil- 
lion of  people  and  they  speak  their  own  language,  they  have  their  own 
nationality  and  they  are  fighting  there  hard.  I  have  no  time  to  tell  you 
how  earnestly  these  first  Baptists  sought  the  truth  until  they  found  it. 
In  our  land  there  are  persons  who  have  been  baptized  twice.  They  never 
sto]i;  even  if  they  have  been  baptized  twice  they  ask  for  right  baptism, 
baptism  as  they  find  in  this  book.  The  first  Baptists  have  gone  through 
fearful  persecution  as  you  have  heard  here  and  as  others  will  tell,  so  I 
better  leave  this  for  the  rest  that  will  follow  me  of  our  brethren  in  Rus- 
sia. They  have  at  present,  praise  God,  twenty-two  organized  churches, 
two  thousand  five  hundred  members  and  several  out-stations,  but  at  the 
same  time  they  have  diflTiculties.     Pray  for  us.     (Applause.) 

FINLAND  (Finnish  Conference). — Kev.  E.  Janxsen:  To  express  my 
heart  reeling  this  evening  i  would  just  say  that  we  all  regard  this  as  a 
great  privilege  to  be  here  at  this  large  gathering  in  the  Lord,  who  has 
broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition  and  made  all  tribes  and  na- 
tions one  in  himself,  and  he  has  taught  us  through  the  gospel  to  believe  in 
one  Lord,  having  one  faith  and  one  baptism,  one  God  Almighty  and  Father 
of  all.  For  all  this  we  thank  him  and  praise  him.  I  can  hardly  express 
my  heart  feelings  this  evening  to  look  at  all  these  brethi'en  and  sisters  iu 
the  Lord  Jesus;  I  have  thought  of  the  great  meeting  that  will  soon  ap- 
pear for  us.  Owing  to  the  generosity  of  our  American  Baptists  our 
small  community  in  Finland  are  able  to  send  three  delegates  to  this 
Congress,  and  this  I  am  glad  to  say  is  more  than  even  the  Americans 
are  able  to  produce  here  to-day  in  proportion  to  membership.  We  are 
greatly  indebted  to  our  American  friends  who  have  sent  for  us  to  come 


42  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

over  here.  As  you  may  know  we  have  two  official  languages  in  Finland, 
and  the  third  one,  Russian,  is  trying  to  work  its  way  in  too,  but  we 
fear  that  Mr.  Stolypin  Avill  not  leave  us  the  only  language,  and  that  I  do 
not  think  will  make  the  Finns  any  better.     (Applause,) 

FINLAND  (Swedish  Conference). — Mr  Ingar:  The  Baptists  of  Fin- 
land are  divided  into  two  Conferences,  one  Finnish  and  one  Swedish; 
this  is  necessary  because  of  the  two  languages.  The  Swedish  conference 
has  twenty-nine  churches  and  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-tAvo 
members.  The  preachers  who  give  all  their  time  to  the  work  are 
twenty-one,  the  others  are  about  forty.  And  the  Sunday-schools  are 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety-six  children  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  teachers.  A  lively  young  people's  work  is  carried  on.  The 
yearly  contributions  of  the  churches  to  their  own  and  the  Conference's 
work  amounts  to  Finnish  marks  44,621.  Much  is  still  to  do;  there  are 
large  disti'iets  where  the  Baptist  principles  are  quite  unknown;  doc- 
trines that  undermine  Christianity  are  propagated  more  and  more,  un- 
disguised, and  find  favor  with  the  people.  The  nation  that  has  begun  to 
awake  from  its  slumber  affected  by  the  system  or  the  established  church, 
is  threatened  to  fall  a  victim  to  the  disorganizing  darkness  which  denies 
the  Christianity  of  value  and  importance.  The  people  are  in  need  of  the 
gospel,  and  our  aim  is  to  give  it  to  them,  but  that  we  may  be  able  to  do 
so,  Avorkers  and  money  are  necessary.     (Applause.) 

RUSSIA  (National  Union). — Key.  E.  Golayefp:  (Translated  by 
Madam  Yasnovsky,  a  lady  of  high  rank  who  is  one  of  our  own  number)  : 
It  is  twenty-one  years  already  since  I  believed  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Twenty  years  I  preached  the  gospel  in  my  community  in  ValashofP,  but 
such  a  meeting  as  this  one  I  have  never  seen;  never  have  I  spoken  to 
such  a  large  audience.  Therefore,  you  will  certainly  understand  my  em- 
barrassment in  speaking  to  so  large  an  audience,  but  I  hope  you 
will  excuse  me.  First  of  all  I  would  like  to  tell  you  how 
grateful  Ave  are  to  you;  first  we  thank  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
then  we  thank  you  our  dear  brothers  and  sisters  here  beyond  the  ocean. 
Thanks  to  you  it  is  that  we  have  the  privilege  in  the  number  of  twenty- 
four  delegates  from  Russia  to  be  present  at  this  World  Alliance  Con- 
gress. I  bring  you  a  hearty  greeting  from  our  brothers  in  Russia.  In 
Russia  the  Baptists  appeared  since  1870;  in  1884  was  foi-med  the  first 
Baptist  Union  in  Russia,  and  by  noAV,  1911,  we  have  already  in  Russia 
more  than  five  hundred  communities  Avith  fifty  thousand  members.  Then 
I  would  like  to  tell  you  in  a  few  words  the  impressions  receiA-ed  by  me 
now.  This  voyage  across  the  ocean  seemed  to  frighten  us  at  first  but 
when  Ave  arrived  here  in  Philadelphia  we  forgot  all  our  trouble.  From 
great  joy  we  even  forget  ourselves  here  and  we  do  not  know  CA-en  how  to 
express  our  feelings  to  you.  Our  last  petition  to  you  is  that  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  perhaps  the  American  brothers  will  help  us  to  do  the  same  in 
Russia  what  we  haA'e  here,  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  in  the  name  of  his  pre- 
cious blood  shed  on  Calvary,  in  the  poAver  of  the  Holy  Ghost.    Amen. 

Russian  delegation  sings. 


Monday, . I uiK'  III. J  Ji'IJt'Oh'D  OF  rh'OCEEDINGS.  43 

RUSSO-GERMAN  UNION.— F.  Brauer  (Translated)  :  Mr.  President 
and  dt'iir  Jriciids.  1  and  the  brethren  wlio  are  witli  me  represent  a  second 
part  ol  the  Bai)tists  in  liussia,  the  Union  of  the  Russian  Baptists  who  are 
German  speaking.  Tliis  Union  consists  of  tliose  Baptists  who  are  not  na- 
tional Russians  and  includes  all  kinds  of  nationalities,  but  the  great  ma- 
jority are  Germans.  The  Union  numbers  at  present  about  twenty-seven 
thousand  members.  We  have  the  same  motto  as  the  Russian  Baptists, 
One  Lord,  one  Faith,  and  one  Baptism;  and  we  are  entirely  at  one  with 
them.  Nevertheless,  we  find  it  necessary  to  march  in  separate  regiments;' 
there  are  many  considerations  that  compel  this,  customs,  traditions,  cliar- 
acter,  compel  it.  Baptists  who  are  not  of  native  Russian  descent  pre- 
serve their  own  customs,  seek  for  loyalty  to  the  Lord  .Tesus  Christ,  seek 
to  extend  his  kingdom  in  the  world  and  to  bring  glory  to  his  name  and 
blessing  to  Russia.  These  Baptists  through  us  bring  to  this  great  Bap- 
tist World  Congress  their  sincere  congratulations  and  their  desire  for 
blessing  upon  you.  May  Jesus  Christ  be  exalted  in  Russia,  in  England 
and  America  and  in  the  whole  world  until  in  the  eternal  triumph  v\e  all 
praise  him  together.     (Applause.) 

POLAND. — Prksidext  E.  Mehr,  of  the  College  for  the  Training  of 
Men  for  tlie  Polish  Ministry.  (Translated  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Rushbrooke,  of 
London)  :  I  rejoice  to  have  an  opportunity  of  speaking  a  few  words  to 
the  representatives  of  the  Baptist  world.  This  assembly  is  a  new  proof 
of  the  power  of  the  blood  of  Christ;  that  blood  has  bound  us  all  to- 
gether. I  have  five  thousand  greetings  from  the  German  Baptists  in  Po- 
land. In  Poland,  first  of  all  Russia,  Baptist  work  began;  it  is  fifty-:;hree 
years  old.  There  is  a  reason  for  the  fact  that  there  are  at  present  only 
five  thousand  members.  Our  members  have  departed  into  many  other 
lands;  we  have  contributed  to  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  Baptists 
here  in  America;  I  have  met  many  of  our  members  here  in  Philadelphia. 
I  have  also  to  bring  greetings  from  a  small  group  of  Polish  Baptists.  We 
have  twelve  million  Poles  in  our  land,  but  few  of  them  are  converted. 
They  send  greetings  and  beg  that  they  may  not  be  forgotten.  (Appiause.) 

HUNGARY.—  (Translated  by  tlie  pastot  of 

the  Hungarian  Church,  Philadelphia)  :  Mr.  President,  I  would  like  if  you 
all  could  speak  Hungarian  or  I  could  speak  English.  I  come  from  Hun- 
gar>-,  the  country  of  Kossuth,  the  greatest  liberty-loving  man  of  Hun- 
gary. Hungary  has  twenty  million  population;  of  these  twenty  millions 
seventeen  thousand  have  been  born  again  to  Baptist  fold.  After  forty 
years  of  service  in  the  mission  field  of  Hungary  we  notice  that  only  the 
Baptist  principles  could  win  the  Hungarian  people  to  Christianity.  We 
notice  that  the  Hungarians  are  inclining  to  the  Baptist  principles.  Hun- 
gary is  equal  to  a  small  bit  of  America;  there  are  all  kinds  of  nation- 
alities found  in  Hungary;  for  that  reason  Hungary  stands  in  a  very  good 
position  for  all  the  countries  to  be  reached  from  there.  Hungary  is  a 
place  where  all  nationalities  could  be  combined  in  the  south  of  Europe. 


44  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

We  wish  from  our  hearts  that  the  Baptist  Congress  will   consiclei    the 
conditions  and  think  of  Hungary.     Pray  for  Hungary. 
Singing  by  Hungarian  delegation. 

GERMANY. — Rev.  J.  G.  Lehmann:  Mr.  President  and  dear  Christian 
friends :  In  the  name  of  the  Union  of  two  hundred  and  four  Baptist 
churches  in  Germany  with  about  forty-two  thousand  members  I  have  ihe 
honor  of  thanking  you  for  the  very  liberal  and  obliging  invitation,  the 
cordial  welcome  and  the  delightful  reception  the  Baptists  of  the  United 
States  of  America  and  especially  of  Philadelphia  have  given  to  us.  In 
1834  the  first  six  Baptists  were  baptized  in  Hamburg.  J.  G.  Oneken  was 
the  man  who  had  prayed  for  a  man  who  would  baptize  him  for  some 
years,  and  this  man  was  sent  from  America,  and  so  there  was  from  the 
beginning  a  connection  between  the  American  Baptists  and  the  German 
Baptists.  I  wish  this  man  Oiicken  could  see  this  splendid  gathering  to- 
night; I  wish  he  could  be  present.  Perhaps  he  is,  perhaps  he  can  see, 
perhaps  he  can  hear  the  report  not  only  from  Germany  but  also  from 
Bohemia  and  Bulgaria  and  Denmark  and  Esthonia  and  Finland  and  Hol- 
land and  Lithuania  and  Moravia  and  Poland  and  Russia  and  Roumania. 
For  this  pioneer  has  been  the  means  of  spreading  the  gospel  and  the 
principles  for  which  Baptists  stand,  with  his  helpers,  my  father,  G.  W. 
Lehmann,  and  the  third  in  Julius  Koebner,  through  all  these  countries; 
and  it  is  a  marvel  in  my  eyes  and  of  those  of  my  German  brethren  here  to 
find  what  God  has  done  through  his  mighty  power  and  blessing.  From 
those  little  cities  the  blessings  have  flowed  all  over  Europe.  (Applause.) 

German  delegation  sings,  "Hold  the  Fort." 

FRANCE.— Rev.  P.  Vincent:  The  Baptists  of  France  bring  their 
greetings  to  the  representatives  of  the  Baptist  churches  of  the  world. 
It  is  strange  how  we  feel  at  home  in  these  United  States,  we  French- 
men. We  feel  at  home  as  republicans;  we  are  proud  we  come  to  the 
country  of  Washington  from  the  country  of  Lafayette,  and  we  are 
proud  that  we  come  from  the  first  country  of  the  Old  Continent  which 
has  adopted  in  its  Constitution  the  great  American  principles  of  a  free 
Church  in  a  free  State.  Do  you  know  that  I  believe  that  the  Baptist 
day  is  dawning  in  France"?  I  take  it  not  from  the  numbers  nor  sta- 
tistics but  from  the  influence  that  our  Baptist  denomination  is  exert- 
ing there.  Where  do  you  think  the  Protestant  people  look  for  an  evan- 
gelistic leader?  They  look  to  the  Baptists.  And  when  they  Avant  a 
scholar  to  translate  anew  their  Bible  into  French  they  look  to  the  Bap- 
tists. Oh,  my  dear  brethren,  I  do  not  believe  that  all  the  work  is  done. 
I  believe  that  the  work  is  just  beginning.  When  I  think  that  there  is 
now  in  France  a  very  mvich  more  disastrous  flood  than  the  flood  which 
threatened  our  capital  city  a  few  months  ago — that  flood  away  from  Ca- 
tholicism and  from  any  kind  of  religion  into  indifference,  into  atheism 
and  into  a  renunciation  of  God.  But  we  stand  there,  we  are  only  few 
but  we  stand,  and  we  will  let  our  principles  be  known,  and  our  princi- 
ple-5  will  triumph  because  they  are  the  principles  of  truth  and  because 


Moiiiiiiy. .lull.' i!t.|         h'Ecoun  or  ri:(>(i:i:ni\(is.  45 

we  are  luit  jjuiiiii'  in  our  own  name,  but   in  tlie  name  of  a  Captain  who 
is  not  only  leading-  us  to  battle  but  leailing  us  to  victory  and  who  has 
given  us  as  our  motto,  "In   the   world  ye  shall   have   tribulations,  but 
be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world."     (Applause.) 
Singing  by  French  delegation. 

ITALY.— Kkv.  Domixico  Scalp:ka  (Translated  by  Rev.  Mr.  WalUer, 
of  New  York):  Mr.  President  and  dear  brethren:  In  this  moment  and 
before  such  an  imposing  audience,  two  oi)posing  sentiments  are  at  work 
in  my  breast,  one  of  inexpressible  joy  as  1  see  before  me  the  allirniation 
of  Baptist  principles  in  the  world;  the  other  of  allliction  and  grief  as  [ 
see  that  Italy,  the  mother  of  Baptist  principles,  is  so  poorly  repre- 
sented. It  is  sad  for  me  to  find  this  because  in  our  country  we  have  the 
great  enemy  of  the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  all  lib- 
erty. If  the  pope,  or  if  jiopery  is  opposed  to  Christianity  in  general  it 
is  opposed  to  the  Baptist  jirineiples  in  particular.  But  the  war  that 
popery  wages  against  us  is  altogether  in  vain,  because  if  we  get  silenced 
the  catacondjs  are  there  to  raise  their  voices  in  our  behalf.    (Applause.) 

Dr.  Scalera  and  j\Ir.  AValker  sing  in  Italian,  "Safe  in  the  Arms  of 
Jesus." 

LETTONIA.— Rev.  J.  Inke:  Honored  brethren:  Under  the  broad 
spreading  wings  of  the  Russian  Eagle  dwell  more  than  sixty  nationali- 
ties, small  and  large,  calling  upon  the  name  of  their  God,  many  of  them 
also  devoted  to  idols,  every  one  in  his  own  language.  Amidst  this  crash 
of  languages  may  be  heard  also  the  Lettonian  or  Letts  language,  which 
is  spoken  by  about  two  million  people.  The  neighboring  nations  con- 
sider the  Letts  able  farmers  and  courageous  sailors.  Seven  hundred 
years  ago  the  German  Knights  brought  Christianity  and  with  fire  and 
sword  forced  the  people  to  adore  the  Blessed  Virgin.  The  German 
Reformation  gave  our  people  Martin  Luther's  catechism.  Just  fifty 
years  ago  the  Letts  received  by  (Jerman  Baptists  the  pure  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ;  many  believed  and  were  baptized,  and  this  notwithstand- 
ing the  prisons,  bonds,  and  cruel  penalties  which  they  had  to  suffer  for 
their  faith.  Now  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  has  in  the  Lettish  nation 
eight  thousand  five  hundred  brothers  and  sisters  in  Christ,  and  they  are 
represented  here  by  four  delegates  who  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  to 
bring  their  heartiest  greetings  to  the  second  Baptist  "World  Congress 
from  eighty-five  churches  of  the  Lettish  Baptist  Union.  We  are  con- 
vinced that  through  the  power  of  the  atoning  ami  cleansing  blood  of 
Christ  and  the  generous  help  of  our  stronger  and  wealthier  brethren, 
our  Russia  will  rapidly  jiossess  one  of  the  largest  Bai)tist  communities 
in  the  world.  Most  other  European  States  have  sent  their  representa- 
tion, but  the  spiritual  reformation  of  Russia  is  only  in  its  infancy  an<l 
the  standard  bearers  of  this  victorious  procession  ar-.-  Baptists.  (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Deleiration  sings,  "Ibdd  the  Fmt." 


46  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

JAPAN. — Mr.  a.  U.  Kawaguchi:  A  few  days  ago  the  Japanese  Min- 
ister at  Wlashing'ton  said  that  there  had  been  wars  of  the  roses,  but 
pointing  to  the  stripes  and  the  sun  flag  of  Japan  he  said  that  there 
never  had  been  war  between  the  stars  and  the  sun.  There  will  not  be 
war  between  the  sun  flag  and  all  the  flags  represented  here  when  Jesus 
Christ  reigns  in  the  Avorld.  What  is  the  claim  of  Jesus  Christ  for  Ja- 
pan 1  Is  it  not  to  become  the  king  of  every  Japanese  subject?  Is  it  not 
to  become  the  Lord  of  every  individual,  the  Lord  of  all  the  political, 
social,  moral,  and  spiritual  institutions  in  Japan?  He  claims  even  this 
night  to  become  the  Lord  of  all  Japan.  Japan,  the  country  which  has 
astonished  the  world  because  of  her  recent  progress,  because  of  the 
struggles  she  has  victoriously  gone  through,  the  country  where  the  edu- 
cational system  is  one  of  the  best,  the  country  where  commerce  is  so 
wonderfully  developed,  the  country  where  civil  and  religious  freedom 
reign,  it  is  his  claim  to  become  the  Lord  of  the  whole  Japanese.  To  us 
as  Baptists  in  the  world,  the  Baptists  of  America,  and  England  and 
Canada  and  all  the  world,  Japan  is  thrown  open  for  evangelization.  Go 
wherever  you  will  and  you  will  find  men  and  women  willing  to  listen 
to  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Should  it  not  be  the  desire  of 
all  of  us  that  the  millions  of  people  of  Japan  not  yet  evangelized  be 
won  by  Christian  men  called  Baptists  ?  May  Christ  become  the  King  and 
Lord  of  Japan.     (Applause.) 

Sings  Japanese  National  Anthem. 

NORWAY. — Rev.  J.  A.  Ohrn  :  I  come  to  you  from  the  most  beautiful 
country  in  the  world;  fifty  thousand  tourists  from  abroad  have  visited 
us  because  they  Avanted  to  see  the  beautiful  silver  decorations  on  our 
mountain  sides.  We  have  fifty  thousand  islands  that  surround  our  coun- 
try with  our  population  spread  all  over  these  and  Ave  have  a  few  more 
than  three  thousand  five  hundred  Baptists.  We  are  a  free  country. 
Only  twenty-five  years  ago  some  of  our  brethren  were  in  prison  just  as 
our  Russian  brethren  have  been.  We  come  from  a  country  now  where 
women  vote  and  where  we  even  have  women  in  Parliament,  We  have 
a  State  Church,  the  Lutheran  Church.  We  are  doing  some  work,  al- 
though not  as  progressive  and  successful  as  we  wish  it  Avould  be.  On 
one  of  our  islands  we  have  the  millennium  this  year.  Every  person  in 
the  island  attends  the  prayer-meeting  except  two.  We  wish  that  Avould 
be  the  case  all  over  the  country,  and  we  wish  you  would  come  over  and 
help  us  so  that  that  would  be  the  ease.  We  established  our  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary  last  year  with  the  assistance  and  the  great  and 
generous  help  of  the  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  Boston, 
and  we  are  very  thankful  to  you  for  this  assistance.  We  have  a  bright, 
scholarly  man  for  the  head,  the  very  man  for  the  place,  and  we  ex- 
pect great  things  for  the  future.  We  thank  you  very  much  for  this  op- 
portunity of  coming  over  here  on  this  occasion.     (Applause.) 

Delegation  sings. 

SWEDEN. — Rev.  C.  E.  Benander,  President  of  the  Seminary  in  Swe- 
den :   Mr.   President :   The   fifty-tAvo   thousand   five   hundred   Baptists   of 


Monday,  Juiu' 1!). J  h'JXOh'D  o/'   I'liOCEKDINGH.  47 

Sweden  to  you  Baptists  ot  tlie  nations  of  the  world,  greeting.  "We  are 
twenty-three  delegates  to  greet  you,  and  in  order  that  we  all  may  speak 
we  would  like  to  greet  you  with  one  of  our  Baptist  battle  hymns.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Delegation  sings. 

ROUMANIA.— Rkv.  B.  Sciilipf:  Christian  friends,  I  come  to  you 
from  only  a  small  Baptist  Christian  community.  We  have  in  Roumania 
four  churches  and  only  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  Baptists  in  them. 
These  Baptists  are  living  among  a  nation  of  about  seven  million  souls. 
The  young  people  of  Roumania  are  bound  to  a  great  extent  by  supersti- 
tion; almost  everything  they  do  is  bound  under  some  form  by  supersti- 
tion. The  wealthier  class  of  Roumanians  as  a  usual  thing  are  atheistic, 
so  we  have  our  mission  in  Roumania  to  teach  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  We  know  that  w^e  will  need  the  Spirit  of  God  in  order  to  be  able 
to  do  that,  to  witness  in  such  a  way  that  the  gospel  which  we  preach  will 
reach  the  hearts  of  the  peojile  whom  we  wish  to  reach.  We  have  been 
praying  for  an  outpouring  of  the  spirit  of  God  upon  our  churches.  We 
are  few  in  number  and  we  need  all  the  strength  that  God  can  put  into 
us  in  order  that  we  may  do  the  work  Avhich  he  has  given  us  to  do,  and 
we  would  ask  you  American  friends — we  would  ask  you  Baptists  from 
all  the  world — to  help  us  to  pray  that  the  day  may  soon  come  when 
every  one  Avho  professes  to  be  a  Baptist  in  Roumania  will  be  a  Baptist 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.     (Applause.) 

SPAIN. — J.  Uhre:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  come  from  Spain;  I  have  been 
there  over  twenty-five  years,  and  I  love  this  land  and  I  like  to  live  there 
and  die  tliere  also.  I  am  very  thankful  to  God  for  the  pi'ivilege  of  being 
able  to  be  here  this  evening  amongst  so  many  delegates  from  all  over 
the  world,  representing  so  large  a  number  of  Baptist  churches.  It  is 
the  first  time,  dear  friends,  that  Spain,  my  beloved  mission  field  has  been 
remembered,  and  a  representative  invited  from  Spain  to  attend  a  gath- 
ering of  this  kind.  Personally,  and  in  behalf  of  the  Spanish  Baptist 
friends,  I  wish  to  thank  the  American  Baptists  for  their  generosity  in 
lielping  us  to  defray  the  expenses  of  this  long  journey,  and  to  the  Eu- 
ropean section  I  extend  sincei'e  appreciation  for  the  arrangement  to 
have  Spain  represented  at  this  Congress.  I  come  from  a  country  which 
now  numbers  eighty  million  inhabitants,  but  there  are  still  few  mis- 
sionaries and  small  churches;  but  we  are  trying  to  make  these  churches 
grow  by  preaching  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  Spain  is  a  very  fine 
land,  and  had  the  gospel  been  preached  there  as  much  as  in  the  United 
States  or  England,  the  Spanish  nation  would  at  this  time  be  an  exceed- 
ingly modern  one.  We  all  know  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  the  only 
thing  that  can  lift  up  a  nation.     Come  over  and  help  us.     (Applause.) 

SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Rkv.  W.  K.  ll.\TCiiKrr.  Mr.  President,  the  territory  occupied  by  the  South- 


48  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

erii  Baptists  hardly  constitutes  one-fourth  of  the  territory  of  our  Ameri- 
can Republic.  The  Southern  Baptists  have  nearly  sixteen  thousand  Bap- 
tist ministers;  they  have  between  twenty-two  thousand  and  twenty- 
three  thousand  Baptist  churches,  and  their  membership  amounts  to  two 
million  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand.  I  do  not  say  this 
boastfully,  but  to  let  you  understand  that  Baptists  sometimes  grow. 
If  I  were  to  add  our  worthy  colored  brethren  we  would  double  the  num- 
ber, but  they  are  to  be  spoken  of  by  some  one  else.  I  have  only  time  to 
say  that  the  Baptist  people  of  the  South  cling  to  the  Bible,  they  are  full 
of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  they  believe  in  him,  in  his  sacrifice,  in  his  suf- 
fering, and  in  his  ultimate  triumph.  The  Baptists  of  the  South  are 
what  you  call  strict.  We  say  to  our  brethren,  ''If  you  will  come  in  the 
water  then  we  Avill  take  you  in,"  and  if  they  insist  on  being  dry  we 
leave  them  out.  One  of  our  ministers  was  approached  some  time  ago  by 
a  brother  who  said,  "Why,  there  is  no  difference  between  us,  is  there?" 
He  said,  "Nothing  in  the  world  between  us  except  the  River  Jordan, 
and,"  he  said,  "we  are  of  that  spirit  that  we  are  willing  to  meet  you 
half-way  even  in  that."  And  when  they  come  in  we  meet,  and  when 
they  stay  out  we  do  not.  I  want  to  say  that  the  Baptists  of  the  South 
are  together.  I  want  to  say  that  the  white  and  colored  Baptists  work 
under  different  organizations  but  they  get  along  better  with  each  other 
than  either  party  gets  along  with  itself,  and  we  are  working  together 
in  full  confidence  in  the  conquest  of  this  world  for  Christ.  (Applause.) 
Delegation  sings,  "Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross." 

NORTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Dr.  Milton  G.  Evans,  President  of  Crozer  Theological  Seminary:  Long 
ago  Christians  in  another  Philadelphia  heard  this  message:  "Behold,  I 
have  set  before  thee  a  door  opened,  which  no  one  can  shut;  because  thou 
hast  a  little  power  and  didst  keep  my  word,  and  didst  not  deny  my  name." 
It  is  not  an  accident  that  we  are  Christians  to-night  in  a  city  named 
Philadelphia.  The  old  message  comes  anew  to  us.  It  brings  a  word  of 
cheer,  for  the  gathering  here  of  men  from  the  world's  ends  is  evidence 
that  we  have  some  power,  however  little  it  may  be.  But  the  possession 
of  power  is  the  open  door  of  privilege  and  of  duty.  Hence,  the  message 
is  a  word  of  w^arning  too.  The  warning  is  the  reward  granted  steadfast- 
ness. It  is  the  only  reward  a  free  man  asks  from  his  God,  the  only 
reward  a  son  desires  of  his  Father, — the  reward  of  opportunity,  a  door 
opened,  that  no  man  can  shut.  So  that  the  one  demand  we  Baptists 
make  of  our  fellow-men,  the  one  gift  of  grace  we  seek  from  God  is  the 
opportunity  to  become  in  Christ  free  members  in  free  churches  in  free 
lands. 

To  this  end,  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  here  in  this  new  Phila- 
delphia of  opportunity  re-consecrates  its  church  buildings,  its  educa- 
tional institutions,  its  printing  presses,  its  missionary  organizations,  its 
membership  one  and  all.  This  Convention  numbers  approximately  one 
million  four  hundred  thousand  members  that  have  made  an  intelligent 
profession  of  faith,  shepherded  by   about   eight   thousand  pastors,   and 


Monday,  .lull."  lit. J  h'hCOh'I)  OF  i'ROCEEDI^OS.  49 

has  church  property  valued  at  nearly  $85,000,000.  It  enrolls  in  its  Sun- 
day-schools almost  nine  hundred  thousand  pupils  taught  by  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  ollicers  and  teachers.  For  the  education  of  its 
own  children  and  of  those  whom  they  touch  in  life's  companionshijjs,  it 
has  preparatory  schools,  colleges,  universities,  and  theological  institu- 
tions, whose  aggregate  valuation,  including  endowments,  certainly  ex- 
ceeds $50,000,000;  for  the  culture  of  its  constituency  in  Christian  doc- 
trine, it  has  about  seventy  denominational  periodicals,  published  either 
weekly,  or  monthly,  or  quarterly.  Its  agent  for  the  evangelization  of 
peoples  in  distant  lands  is  the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  So- 
ciety, with  an  annual  income  of  about  $1,050,000;  for  the  Christianiza- 
tion  of  fellow-citizens  of  many  races  enjoying  the  protection  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes,  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  ex- 
pends annually  approximately  $050,000;  and  the  American  Baptist  Pub- 
lication Society  has  permanent  funds  and  annual  contributions,  valued 
at  more  than  $1,000,000  with  Avhieh  to  scatter  leaves  of  healing  the  wide 
world  round. 

Baptists  of  the  world :  I,  on  behalf  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion, dedicate  all  this  wealth  and  power  in  service  for  you,  for  your 
children,  for  your  children's  children,  until  God's  kingdom  be  estab- 
lished upon  the  earth.     (Applause.) 

PORTO  RICO.— Rev.  Juan  Capira:  Mr.  President  and  my  dear 
friends,  every  delegate  here  to-night  has  been  representing  a  country 
and  standing  for  a  certain  flag,  but  the  case  with  me  has  been  very 
different.  Since  this  morning  I  have  been  thinking  about  what  coun- 
try I  was  going  to  represent  here  to-night,  and  just  at  this  moment 
while  I  sat  up  there  I  solved  the  problem,  and,  like  Archimedes,  I  could 
say  "Eureka,  Eureka,  I  have  found  it."  The  question  is  this:  If  I  am 
representing  any  country  at  all  at  this  moment  I  would  say  I  am  repre- 
senting the  greatest  nation  in  the  Avorld,  because  I  am  representing  a 
very  small  island  in  the  ocean,  and  Porto  Rico  belongs  to  the  United 
States;  then  I  am  here  representing  a  j^ortion  of  the  United  States. 
Now,  my  brethren,  as  you  know  already,  I  stand  here  in  representation 
of  forty-two  churches  with  two  thousand  Baptists  and  I  am  going  to 
state  to  you,  not  as  a  Porto  Rican,  but  as  representing  your  own  na- 
tion, the  necessity  of  those  churches  and  the  necessity  of  that  country 
and  of  Porto  Rico  are  your  necessities,  because  that  has  been  United 
States  of  America  since  1898.     (Applause.) 

BRAZIL. — Rev.  Mr,  Taylor:  Mr.  President  and  friends,  thirty-five 
years  ago  in  Baylor  University,  Texas,  two  yoving  men  caught  a  vision  of 
the  lost  world,  and  looking  out  for  a  field  they  say  that  no  Baptists  were 
in  Brazil,  South  America,  that  land  of  the  descendants  of  the  Ca3sars, 
that  old  Latin  race  of  Seneca  and  Cicero,  of  Livy  and  Virgil  and  Na- 
poleon, that  race  that  ruled  the  world  for  fifteen  centuries.  Brazilians, 
or  the  Portuguese,  are  descendants  of  that  old  Latin  race.  As  Brazil  is 
to  Portugal  so  is  the  United  States  to  England.  As  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  abandoning  their  idols  accepted  the  Bible  and  the  Bible's  God  and 
took  the  van  in  the  world,  so  the  Latin  nations  changed  their  old  Latin 


50  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

gods  for  paper  gods  and  took  the  rear.  But  in  time  the  gosjDel  has  per- 
meated and  the  Latin  nations  have  found  their  error,  and  when  Wash- 
ington and  Lafayette  were  declaring  the  Republic  here,  in  South  America 
the  republics  one  after  another  bloomed  out  until  Brazil  in  1889  was  the 
last  one.  The  mother  country,  Portugal,  with  all  her  possessions  in  Asia, 
Africa,  America  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  is  now  republican.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

NATIONAL  BAPTISI  CONVENTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

(Colored). — Dr.  G.  P.  Howard:  Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen: 
I  am  not  upon  this  program  and  therefore  had  no  thought  of  being  called 
upon  to  speak  to  you  to-night.  I  have  collected  no  statistics  so  as  to 
speak  to  you  accurately  as  to  the  size  of  the  work  we  are  carrying  on, 
but  it  is  a  fact  that  we  are  doing  educational  work  in  this  country,  in 
Africa,  and  in  South  America,  and  aiding  in  some  work  in  Russia,  both 
of  an  educational  and  of  a  missionary  kind.  We  feel  that  it  would  be 
our  duty  since  God  has  done  so  much  for  us  to  help  in  saving  this  world 
for  Christ.  Some  years  ago  while  pastoring  in  Petersburg,  Penna.,  it 
was  my  happy  lot  to  visit  the  splendid  waterfalls  at  Niagara,  and  as  I 
looked  ujjon  those  magnificent  falls  and  saw  that  water  plunging  over 
the  precipice  and  falling  into  that  abyss  and  sending  up  that  beautiful 
spray  through  which  the  sun  sent  its  beautiful  rays  of  light  creating 
every  hue  and  color,  forming  a  rainbow  that  bent  over  my  head,  I  said, 
"Surely,  this  is  the  voice  of  prophecy  saying  to  me  and  to  my  people 
that  God  from  the  cross  and  from  the  fields  of  slavery,  through  tribula- 
tions and  trials,  meant  to  weave  a  rainbow  of  sorrow  over  our  heads  and 
give  us  marching  orders  that  we  should  help  to  save  the  rest  of  the 
world  and  mankind  to  our  God  and  to  our  Christ. ' '  I  rise  to  say  we  are  ex- 
ceedingly grateful  to  God,  we  are  exceedingly  grateful  to  the  white  peo- 
ple of  the  North  and  to  the  white  peoj^le  of  the  South  and  everybody 
else  that  has  helped  us  in  our  struggle  upward  and  onward,  and  we  feel 
to  whatever  heights  our  white  brethren  go,  we  intend  to  go  in  the  name 
of  Christ,  and  we  serve  notice  that  you  cannot  crown  Christ  Lord  of  all 
without  the  Negro  Baptists  of  this  country  helping  you  to  do  it.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Delegation  sings,  ''Steal  away  to  Jesus." 

HOLLAND. — Rev.  G.  de  Wilde:  Mr.  President  and  dear  Christian 
friends,  I  feel  it  is  a  great  privilege  for  me  to  represent  my  people  in 
Holland  before  the  Alliance.  Although  I  departed  from  my  own  country 
nearly  two  years  ago  in  answer  to  a  call  from  my  Holland  church  at  Pat- 
erson,  N.  J.,  I  may  say  I  am  fully  acquainted  with  the  situation  in  Hol- 
land. I  feel  quite  at  home  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes;  I  am  only  sorry 
I  don't  see  our  flag  here.  Our  Dutch  flag  is  not  blue,  Avhite,  red,  it  is  red, 
white,  blue,  and  I  am  sure  at  the  next  congress  the  Dutch  flag  will  be  be- 
side the  beautiful  Stars  and  Stripes.  We  have  twenty-three  churches  there 
with  one  thousand  six  hundred  members;  we  have  forty  Sunday-schools 
with  about  five  hundred  children  and  our  income  from  churches  by  col- 
lections and  so  on  is  about  $16,000  a  year.  Taking  into  consideration  that 
our  country  is  only  yielding  five  hundred  millions,  I  think  we  do  not  do 


.MoiKhiy,  .lunc  lil.l  in.CDUn   O/'   l'U(K'i:i:i)l .\(JS.  51 

so  bad  as  a  whole.  Still,  we  Holland  Baptists  are  Baptists  and  we  are 
interested  in  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  in  a  spiritual  way, 
and  I  would  kindly  ask  on  behalf  of  my  Dutch  people  for  your  sympathy 
and  prayers  for  the  work  in  Holland.  AVhat  we  specially  need  is  a  real 
fresh  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  perhaps  that  may  be  the  need  of 
every  Baptist  church  over  the  whole  world.  May  the  Lord  gi-ant  us  such 
an  outpouring  and  the  results  may  be  that  thousands  may  plunge  in  the 
blood  of  Jesus,  that  the  saints  may  be  established  in  their  faith  and  may 
stand  true  to  the  dear  old  Bible,  the  word  of  God,  and  standing  on  the 
promise  may  God  bless  you  all.     (Applause.) 

After  the  singing  of  the  Doxology  the  session  adjourned  at  11  P.  M. 

Note. — The  representative  from  Jamaica  was  overlooked  on  Monday 
evening  and  repoiied  on  the  following  Sunday.  His  report,  however,  is 
incorporated  here. —  [Editor.] 

JAMAICA. — Mr.  Williams:  Mr.  President  and  my  dear  friends,  I 
hardly  know  what  to  say  about  Jamaica  at  the  close  of  this  glorious  meet- 
ing that  we  have  had  to-night.  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  give  you 
the  most  hearty  greetings  of  the  forty  thousand  Baptist  members,  nearly 
all  of  whom  are  colored  people,  who  live  in  the  tropical  island  from 
which  you  receive  such  a  large  proportion  of  your  bananas.  We  know 
you  get  bananas  from  that  island,  and  some  of  your  best,  and  perhaps 
you  think  of  Jamaica  principally  as  a  land  that  produces  good  bananas. 
We  would  like  you  to  think  of  it  as  a  land  that  produces  good  Baptists  as 
well,  a  land  in  which  some  of  the  best  missionary  work  has  been  done 
that  has  been  done  anywhere,  a  land  that  has  had  amongst  its  mission- 
aries some  of  the  noblest  heroes  of  the  Cross,  and  a  land  in  which  God's 
blessing  has  abundantly  rested  upon  their  labors.  In  addition  to  nearly 
two  hundred  churches  in  that  island,  we  have  sustained  for  many  years 
our  own  training  institution,  so  that  about  three-quarters  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  churches  in  that  island  at  the  present  time  are  natives  of  the 
country  who  have  been  trained  in  that  institution.  We  have  also  our 
own  missionary  society,  and  in  addition  to  supporting  our  own  work 
within  the  island  we  have  some  six  representatives  who  are  laboring  in 
foreign  countries  as  the  representatives  of  Jamaica  Baptists,  and  who  are 
seeking  to  do  their  part  in  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  out- 
side our  own  country.  While  giving  expression  to  my  own  hearty  appre- 
ciation of  all  the  kindness  that  we  have  experienced  in  connection  with 
this  congress  and  of  all  the  blessing  that  we  have  received,  let  me  ask 
you  to  think  of  us  in  poor  little  lonely  Jamaica,  to  remember  that  you 
have  some  good  Baptist  brethren  there.  Pray  for  them,  and  when  you 
come  down  to  visit  the  land  of  the  bananas  think  of  it  as  a  land  of  Bap- 
tist churches,  and  let  us  have  practical  expression  of  your  sympathy  in 
your  co-operation,  so  lar  as  that  may  be  possible  in  doing  the  work  to 
which  God  has  called  us.     (Applause.) 

Note. — While  the  exerci.ses  were  going  on  at  Grace  Temple,  an  over- 
flow meeting  was  held  at  the  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  five  squares  dis- 
tant on  Broad  street.  The  same  program  was  carried  out,  being  reversed. 
[Editor.] 


52  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


THIRD   SESSION 


Tuesday  Morning,  June  20,  1911. 

Session  was  opened  at  9.30  tvith  a  devotional  service  by  Rev.  T.  H. 
Martin,  of  Glasgow,  Scotland. 

The  audience  sang  ''How  Firm  a  Foundation." 

Mr.  Martin  :  In  the  ancient  ritual  of  Israel  there  Avas  an  injunction 
that  ran  thus,  "The  fire  shall  ever  be  burning  on  the  altar;  it  shall  never 
go  out."  That  fire  was  kindled  from  heaven  when  Aaron  and  his  sons 
first  entered  upon  their  priestly  office.  To  keep  it  from  being  extin- 
guished so  that  strange  fire  should  not  be  used  for  the  sacrifice,  the  ut- 
most care  was  to  be  exercised.  It  was  the  divinely  appointed  symbol  of 
the  presence  and  favor  of  Jehovah ;  it  was  the  visible  sign  of  his  uninter- 
rupted worship  which  the  covenant  nation  could  never  suspend  day  or 
night  without  being  unfaithful  to  its  calling.  For  nine  hundred  years 
that  sacred  flame  was  preserved.  We  have  an  altar  of  which  the  Jewish 
altar  was  a  type,  the  cross  on  which  the  Prince  of  Glory  died;  the  flame 
which  kindled  that  sacrifice  was  divine,  the  love  which  burned  in  the 
heart  of  the  Eternal  himself.  It  can  never  go  out;  the  love  expressed 
in  the  sacrifice  and  intercession  of  our  Great  High  Priest  is  an  ever- 
burning fire.  Redemption  is  the  passion  of  the  heart  of  God,  constant  as 
his  own  nature,  and  though  consummated  on  Calvary  it  is  not  and  it  can- 
not pass  away  from  his  being.  From  that  altar  has  been  brought  the  live 
coal  that  has  kindled  the  flame  of  sacred  love  on  the  mean  altar  of  our 
hearts.  Nothing  but  the  divine  love  and  that  love  told  out  on  a  cross 
could  have  awakened  ours.  It  is  a  trust,  and  we  are  recreant  to  the 
Lord  that  redeemed  us  if  we  are  unfaithful  to  it.  The  Cross  which  is 
the  ground  of  our  salvation  must  be  transmuted  into  the  law  of  our  life. 
Its  spirit  must  be  the  ruling  principle  of  our  being  and  the  animating 
power  of  our  service.  Conformity  to  the  death  of  Christ  is  the  secret 
of  the  Christian  soul.  In  earlier  times  the  men  of  our  faith  and  order 
who  broke  away  from  the  orthodox  ecclesiasticism  of  their  day  did  so 
because  this  fire  burned  in  their  hearts.  It  made  them  loyal  to  true 
form  in  their  allegiance  to  Christ,  great  in  asserting  the  spirituality  of 
faith,  and  inflexible  in  upholding  the  liberty  Avherewith  Christ  makes 
his  people  free.  It  made  them  invincible  under  persecution  and  oblo- 
quy, heeding  neither  the  frowns  nor  the  favors  of  the  world.  Neander 
says  they  were  the  purest  offspring  of  the  reaction  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  against  the  sacerdotalism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Principal 
Lindsay  in  his  recent  history  of  the  Reformation  expresses  the  doubt 
whether  the  Reformation  would  have  been  a  success,  but  for  the  presence 


MEMORIAL    BAPTIST   CHURCH 
Where  the  overflow  meetings  were  held. 


Tuesday,  Juno  20.1  UECOJiD  OF  PROCEFDIXCS.  53 

in  Europe  of  sects,  which  were  mostly  Baptist,  liidden  away  in  secret 
places,  who  by  their  own  quiet  witnessing  insured  the  success  of  the 
movement. 

Are  we  keeping  this  fire  alive  in  our  own  lives  and  in  our  own  times? 
Whatever  else  may  be  discussed,  I  take  it  this  is  the  supreme  question 
before  this  Congres.s.  Whether  the  depi-ession  which  seems  to  obsess 
many  Chi'istian  minds  among  all  churches  be  justified  or  not,  there  is 
sufficient  reason  in  the  condition  of  things  to-day  to  give  us  pause,  and 
to  recall  us  to  serious  thought  and  prayer.  Is  the  fire  smouldering  on 
the  altar  of  many  of  our  churches  and  in  the  heart  of  many  an  indi- 
vidual minister  and  member?  Where  is  the  passion  that  should  charac- 
terize our  preaching,  that  need  of  urgency  which  presents  Christ  as  the 
one  necessity  of  the  human  soul,  not  a  luxury  that  may  be  taken  or  left 
but  the  bread  and  the  -water  of  life,  the  way  to  God,  the  truth  of  being, 
the  life  which  is  the  life  indeed.  Where  is  the  passion  in  prayer  that 
transforms  it  from  a  mere  formal  address  to  the  Almighty  into  a  wrest- 
ling with  God?  Where  is  the  passion  for  the  church  as  the  mother 
country  of  the  saints  of  God,  the  spiritual  city  wherein  alone  the  soul 
of  man  finds  its  safety  and  attains  its  dignity,  that  passion  which  makes 
its  fellowship  our  first  desire  and  its  prosperity  our  first  solicitude? 
Has  not  strange  fire  been  found  on  our  altar?  Have  we  not  often  been 
influenced  by  unworthy  motives  that  savor  of  selfishness  and  worldli- 
ness  instead  of  the  one  supreme  constraint  of  the  love  of  Christ?  Ought 
we  not  then  to  pray  fervently  that  the  fire  of  that  love  may  be  rekindled 
in  every  one  of  us  till  we  realize,  as  an  old  Puritan  poet  says,  that  our- 
selves become  our  own  best  sacrifice. 

Read  Scripture — The  gift  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

After  prayer  by  Mr.  Martin  audience  joined  in  singing,  "All  Hail  the 
Power  of  Jesus'  Name." 

At  this  point  President  Clifford  delivered  the  presidential  address : 


THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE:  ITS  ORIGIN  AND   CHARAC- 
TER, MEANING  AND  WORK. 

By  JOHN  CLIFFORD,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  D.D. 

Dear  Brktiiren  and  Friends  : 

I  cannot  enter  upon  the  duties  of  this  office  without  first  of  all  thank- 
ing you  with  all  my  heart  for  the  honor  you  have  conferi*ed  upon  me. 
Frankly,  I  must  say,  it  was  one  of  the  great  surprises  of  my  life  when  the 
Baptist  World  Congress  held  in  London  in  1905,  elected  me  to  the  Presi- 
dency of  this  newly  created  Alliance.  In  the  natural  order  of  things  the 
chairman  to  succeed  our  revered  and  most  illustrious  chief.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander MacLaren,  should  have  been  chosen  from  amongst  our  brethren  of 
the  Great  Republic  of  the  West.  But  in  the  overflow  of  your  generous 
confidence  you  called  me  to  this  position,  and  thereby  gave  me  the  high 
privilege  and  sacred  responsibility  of  presiding  over  this,  our  Second 
World  Congress;  and  now  with  a  gratitude  too  deep  for  words  for  that 


54  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

election,  and  for  the  trust  reposed  in  me  during  the  six  years  I  have  held 
this  post,  I  east  myself  upon  your  assured  sympathy  and  brotherly  love. 
Dear  Friends  : 

We  meet  in  the  name  and  by  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour.  We  are  cheered  by  His  promised  presence  and  the  conscious 
leadership  of  His  Spirit.  Our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with 
the  Son,  and  we  gladly  add,  with  millions  of  our  Baptist  brethren  scat- 
tered throughout  the  whole  world.  We  are  only  a  few  gathered  in  this 
City  of  Brotherly  Love;  but  we  represent,  and  at  this  hour,  are  associ- 
ated with,  multitudes  in  confession  and  yearning,  in  aspiration  and  effort 
for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the  coronation  of  the  King 
of  kings.  For  this  is  not  only  the  week  of  our  assembling,  but  it  is  also, 
and  this  is  our  first  thought,  a  week  of  universal  prayer  in  our  homes  and 
churches; — truly  a  great  week;  perhaps  the  greatest  week  in  the  exjDeri- 
ence  of  our  Baptist  brotherhood.  Never  before  have  we  so  thor- 
oughly realized  our  essential  unity.  Never  before  has  there  been 
such  a  strong  sense  of  comradeship,  linking  together  the  workers 
in  the  crowded  towns  and  cities  with  the  lonely  souls  who  have 
ascended  to  the  heights  of  faith,  resolved  to  keep  the  exposed  fortresses 
of  truth  in  the  villages  and  hamlets  of  the  world,  in  face  of  fiercest 
attack,  and  in  scorn  of  all  consequences.  It  is  a  quickening  atmosphere 
we  breathe;  charged  with  the  radiant  energy  of  devotion,  of  dependence 
upon  God,  of  faith  in  the  might  of  the  gospel,  of  invincible  fidelity  to  the 
principles  by  which  we  are  compacted  together.  "This  is  none  other 
but  the  house  of  God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven." 

Nor  is  that  all.  ''A  great  cloud  of  witnesses  holds  us  in  full  survey." 
We  stand  in  their  presence.  ''Part  of  the  host  has  crossed  the  flood." 
We  are  grateful  for  their  service  and  rejoice  in  the  splendid  heritage 
they  have  bequeathed  to  us.  And  "part  is  crossing  now."  Fellow-pil- 
grims on  in  front,  under  the  lead  of  the  Captain  of  our  salvation  have 
only  just  passed  out  of  sight,  their  warfare  accomplished;  their  reward 
secure.  But  there  is  also  a  glorious  company  of  men  and  women  who 
join  us  through  these  memorable  days  in  thankful  commemoration  of  our 
brave  forefathers,  in  glowing  sympathy  with  the  heroic  sufferers  for 
conscience'  sake  in  distant  lands,  in  exposition  of  the  principles  of  which 
we  are  trustees,  and  above  all,  in  prayer  that  our  God  will  bless  us,  and 
increase  us  yet  more  and  more ;  that  He  will  lead  us  in  His  way,  and  fit 
us  for  doing  His  work  in  the  years  immediately  before  us, — so  that  this 
Congress  may  issue  in  the  salvation  of  our  fellows,  the  shaping  of  the 
future  course  of  our  churches,  and  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  the  one  subject  your  President  cannot  escape 
from,  on  this,  the  first  occasion  of  our  meeting  as  an  Alliance,  is  the 
Alliance  itself,  its  creation  and  character,  its  meaning  and  work. 
For  this  is  really  our  first  meeting  as  an  Alliance.  Our  Constitution  was 
formed  in  London  in  1905.  A  series  of  inspiring  and  most  helpful  meet- 
ings of  the  European  churches  followed  three  years  afterwards  in  the  city 
of  Berlin,  but  those  gatherings  were  local  in  their  representation,  al- 
though of  universal  interest  and  influence.  This,  therefore,  is  the  begin- 
ning of  the  public  work  of  the  Alliance,  and  the  manifestation  of  the 
latest  phase  of  our  Baptist  life. 

The  novelty  of  this  organization  is  surprising,  partly  because  it  appears 
in  a  people  delivered  over,  body  and  soul,  to  individualism,  and  in  mortal 


Tuesday,  JuiK' 2U.J  KECOh'D  OF  i'RUCEEDISUH.  55 

terror  of  the  slightest  invasion  of  their  personal  and  ecclesiastical  inde- 
pendence; and  yet  to  others,  who  have  grasped  the  intrinsic  catholicity 
of  our  fundamental  principles,  it  is  astonishing  that  we  have  been  so  long 
arriving  at  the  present  stage  of  our  development. 

For  although  this  Alliance  is  a  new  creation,  it  is  really  the  out- 
ward and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace  that  has  been 
working  within  us,  with  special  energy  and  vitality,  during  the  last  ten 
or  fifteen  years;  and  witnesses  to  magnetic  and  cohesive  forces  oper- 
ating, though  latent,  and  powerful  though  silent.  It  is  not  that  we  have 
nuide  any  new^  discovery,  or  surrendered  any  long-cherished  truths,  or 
forsaken  any  primary  aims,  or  found  any  new  basis  of  agreement ; — not 
at  all;  it  is  simply  that  the  consciousness  of  the  universal  sweep  of  our 
ideas  and  ideals  has  become  more  vivid,  and  the  conditions  favorable 
for  their  expression  have  at  last  arrived.  Deep  in  the  soul  of  us  has 
always  dwelt  the  conviction  that  we  are  the  jDossessors  of  a  genuinely 
universal  religion;  although  it  has  only  found  voice  here  and  there.  For 
the  most  part  we  have  not  known  one  another.  We  have  been  like  mem- 
bers of  a  family  who,  instead  of  growing  up  under  the  same  roof -tree, 
have  rarely  met,  and  have  not  infrequently  misunderstood  one  another 
when  they  did  meet,  and  therefore  we  have  misjudged  and  misrepre- 
sented one  another's  opinions  and  practices.  The  churches  have  been 
isolated.  Many  of  them  have  been  beaten  back  into  remote  corners  of  the 
earth  in  their  incessant  conflicts  with  priestly  assumptions  and  clerical 
oppressions;  so  that  a  "World  Alliance  was  as  impossible  fifty  years  ago 
as  was  a  treaty  for  the  settlement  of  all  international  disputes,  without 
any  exception  whatever,  at  the  same  date. 

But  a  new  day  has  dawned.  The  barriers  are  broken  down.  The  post 
and  the  press,  the  telegraph  and  the  telei)hone,  the  rail  and  the  steam- 
boat unite  us.  St.  Petersburg  finds  itself  in  Philadelphia,  though  with 
dilliculty  enough  to  remind  us  that  the  sons  and  daughtei's  of  freedom 
have  not  finished  their  work.  Swedes  and  Norwegians  join  hands  with 
New  Zealanders  and  Victorians.  Frenchmen  and  Germans  exult  in  their 
brotherhood  in  Christ,  and  yearn  for  the  day  when  their  countries  will 
not  teach  war  any  more.  Spain  and  Italy  converse  wnth  the  ancient 
Latin  races  from  Central  America,  and  the  Britisher  rejoices  to  find  him- 
self by  the  side  of  the  emancipated  representatives  from  Georgia  and 
Carolina.  So  we  come  together!  So  our  Alliance  is  possible.  Moulded 
under  different  conditions,  dwelling  under  different  flags,  trained  in  dif- 
ferent climes  and  by  different  teachers  with  different  methods,  we  come 
together  rejoicing,  that  in  the  new  nature,  we  have  received  through  the 
grace  of  God,  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew.  Fuglishman  nor  American, 
black  nor  white,  bond  nor  free,  but  that  all  are  one  in  Christ,  and  Christ 
is  all  in  each  and  in  all. 

Speaking  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Bryce  says:  ''America  is  a  com- 
monwealth of  commonwealths,  a  republic  of  republics,  a  State  which, 
while  one,  is  nevertheless  composed  of  other  States  even  more  essential 
to  its  existence  than  it  is  to  theirs."  So  this  Congress  is  an  Alliance  of 
other  alliances,  civic,  county,  colonial,  and  national;  a  union  of  repre- 
sentatives of  churches  which  has  its  strength  in  the  individual  churches 
represented,  and  which  are  immeasurably  more  to  the  Alliance  than  the 
Alliance  can  possibly  be  to  them. 

Yet  the  appearance  of  this  Alliance  is  a  fact  full  of  promise,  the  em- 
bodiment of  ideas  and  forces  operating  over  vast  areas  of  Baptist  life, 


56  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

and  prophetic  of  the  place  we  have  to  take  in  the  leadership  of  the  relig- 
ious life  of  mankind.  It  could  not  well  have  come  earlier.  It  has  come 
now;  and  we  hail  it  as  the  morning  star  of  a  new  day,  the  first  flower  of 
a  new  spring,  the  opening  of  a  new  epoch  in  our  history. 

n. 

What  is  new  is  that  this  is  a  World  Alliance  of  Baptists.  We  have 
other  unions ;  but  they  are  restricted.  This  is  all  embracing.  They  unite 
two  or  three  churches  in  a  locality,  a  hundred  in  a  county,  or  thousands 
in  a  nation ;  this  represents  all,  and  is  really  and  not  factitiously  ecu- 
menical. 

It  is  not  our  immense  numbers  that  creates  this  union ;  though  we  must 
have  more  than  eight  millions  of  registered  members,  and  a  host  of  ad- 
herents; nor  is  it  by  the  authority  of  persons  that  we  meet,  as  of  a 
Pope  claiming  infallibility,  or  a  body  of  Patriarchs  compelling  our  ap- 
pearance; nor  is  it  again,  in  obedience  to  the  mandate  of  a  church,  or  the 
action  of  the  machinery  of  the  State.  Our  cohesiveness  is  due  to  our 
ideas.  They  bind  us  together.  They  are  our  driving  and  inspiring  force. 
They  are  the  founts  of  our  power;  the  well-springs  of  our  life,  the  stars 
that  shine  in  the  over-arching  sky  of  our  life,  the  suns  that  feed  and  up- 
hold our  life.  Carlyle  says:  "Every  society,  every  polity,  has  a  spir- 
itual principle;  is  the  embodiment,  tentative  and  more  or  less  complete, 
of  an  ideal ;  all  its  tendencies  of  endeavor,  specialties  of  custom,  its 
laws,  politics  and  whole  procedure,  are  prescribed  by  an  idea,  and  flow 
naturally  from  it  as  movements  from  the  living  source  of  motion.  This 
idea,  be  it  of  devotion  to  a  man  or  class  of  men,  to  a  creed,  to  an  in- 
stitution, or  even,  as  in  more  ancient  times,  to  a  piece  of  land,  is  ever 
a  true  loyalty;  has  in  it  something  of  a  religious,  paramount,  quite  infi- 
nite character ;  it  is  properly  the  soul  of  the  State,  its  life ;  mysterious 
as  other  forms  of  life,  and  like  these  working  secretly,  and  in  a  depth 
beyond  that  of  consciousness."  Cardinal  Manning  declared  '4deas  are 
the  life  of  institutions,"  and  Stade  tells  us  that  "the  history  of  Israel 
is  essentially  a  history  of  religious  ideas. ' '  So  the  ecumenical  character 
of  this  Alliance  is  derived  from  its  central  and  formative  ideas ;  not  from 
one,  or  from  two  in  their  separateness ;  but  from  the  whole  body  judged 
as  a  coherent  and  compact  whole ;  this  completing  and  balancing  that ; 
and  the  entire  combination  receiving  that  accentuation  and  emphasis 
which  secures  for  each  principle  its  full  place  and  legitimate  action, — 
their  "various  parts  eloselj'  fitting  and  firmly  adhering  to  one  an- 
other," grows  by  the  aid  of  every  contributoi-y  link,  with  power  propor- 
tioned to  the  need  of  each  part,  so  as  to  clothe  the  Alliance  with  the 
attributes  and  functions  of  a  universal  Council. 

Indeed,  I  claim  for  this  Alliance  that  it  is  "catholic"  with  a  wider 
Catholicism  than  that  of  Rome,  and  "orthodox"  with  an  orthodoxy 
more  spiritual  and  biblical  than  that  of  the  Eastern  Church.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Nice,  for  example,  held  in  the  year  325,  was  a  meeting  of  the 
Catholic  Episcopate.  We  recognize  no  distinction  of  clergy  and  laity,^ 
for  all  believers  are  in  the  judgment  of  Peter,  God 's  clergy.  That  Coun- 
cil owed  its  initiation  to  Constantine,  and  was  mainly  an  attempt  to 
pacify  the  State  through  the  Church,  by  an  imperial  ruler.  Our  impulse 
comes  from  a  common  faith,  working  by  a  common  love,  producing  a 
common  service,  and  issuing  in  a  common  joy.     The  Nicene  Creed,  which 


Tuesday,  Juno  20.1  RECOnD  OF  I'ROrEKDIXafi.  57 

makes  the  Nicene  Council  fanious,  was  adopted  in  compliance  with  an 
Emperor's  appeals,  and  penalties  were  imposed  by  liim  on  tiiose  who 
refused  tu  subscribe.  No  creed  will  be  propounded  by  us,  and  yet  we 
are  tar  more  united  in  the  faith  of  the  liospel  than  were  the  fathers  at 
Nice.  Only  eight,  or  according  to  some  authorities,  not  more  than  five 
out  of  the  318  bishops  ot  that  Council  came  Irom  the  West;  to-day  we 
are  come  glad  and  happy  from  all  over  the  earth  to  share  in  a  Pente- 
costal lellowship  based  on  spiritual  ideas  and  principles  more  truly  uni- 
versal than  any  of  those  of  the  older  times. 

in. 

But  this  organization  is  a  World  Alliance  of  Baptists,  and  that  means 
that  the  catholic  principles  on  which  we  base  ourselves  we  derive  straight 
from  Jesus,  are  accepted  on  His  authority,  and  involve  in  all  who  ac- 
cept them  total  subjection  of  soul  to  His  gracious  and  benignant  rule.  He 
is  Lord  of  all,  and  He  only  is  Lord  of  all.  Our  conception  of  Christ's 
authority  is  exclusive.  We  refuse  to  everybody  and  everything  the 
slightest  share  in  it.  It  is  absolute,  unlimited,  indefeasible,  admits  of 
no  question,  and  allows  no  equal.  The  right  to  rule  in  the  religious  life 
is  in  Him  and  in  no  other.  In  no  other,  be  he  as  saintly  as  St.  Francis, 
as  devout  as  St.  Bernard,  as  loving  as  John,  or  as  practical  as  Paul;  not 
in  any  offices,  papal,  episcopal,  or  ministerial;  not  in  tradition,  though 
it  may  interpret  the  goings  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  illustrate  the  ef- 
fects of  obedience  and  disobedience;  not  in  the  Old  Testament  nor  yet 
in  the  New,  though  their  working  values  are  great  since  they  enable  us 
to  know  His  mind,  understand  His  laws  of  conduct,  and  partake  more 
freely  of  His  spirit;  not  in  the  long  annals  of  the  life  of  the  church; 
or  the  agreement  of  "the  whole  church"  at  one  special  moment;  yet  we 
welcome  the  illumination  church  history  affords  of  His  administration 
of  the  social  life  of  His  people,  of  its  aim  and  spirit;  of  its  difficulties 
and  hindrances,  and  of  the  sufficiency  of  His  grace.  Jesus  Christ  holds 
the  first  place  and  the  last.    His  word  is  final.    His  rule  is  supreme. 

In  short,  the  deepest  impulse  of  Baptist  lile  has  been  the  upholding  of 
the  sole  and  exclusive  authority  of  Christ  Jesus  against  all  possible  en- 
croachment from  churches,  from  sections  of  churches,  from  the  whole 
church  at  any  special  moment  of  its  life  and  action,  as  in  a  Council,  from 
the  traditions  of  the  elders,  from  the  exegesis  of  scholars,  and 
from  the  interesting  but  needless  theories  of  philosophers.  It  is  the 
momentum  of  that  one  cardinal  idea  which  has  swept  us  along  to  our 
present   position. 

And  now  it  follows  upon  that,  that  the  ideas  to  which  we  give 
witness  root  themselves,  first  in  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
secondly  in  the  soul's  experience  of  Christ, 

In  our  modern  form  as  Baptists  we  date  from  1611.  and  that  is,  from 
the  same  year  as  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Scriptures.  This  year 
is  the  ter-centenary  of  the  first  promulgation  of  the  principles  on  which 
we  build  as  societies  as  well  as  of  the  appearing  of  that  version  of  the 
Bible  which  King  George  the  Fifth  describes  as  'Mhe  first  of  our  na- 
tional treasures." 

This  synchronism  is  suggestive.  For  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  relation 
of  the  two  events  is  vital  and  not  accidental.  It  is  contemporaneity  of 
source,  like  that  of  twins,  and  not  mere  juxta-position  like  that  of  peb- 


58  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

bles  jostling  one  another  on  a  beach.  The  two  events  are  related  as 
fruits  on  the  same  tree,  as  flowers  of  the  same  early  spring,  as  effects  of 
the  same  energy,  and  lights  proceeding  from  the  same  central  sun.  The 
God  who  inspired  Bezaleel  the  artist  of  the  tabernacle,  also  inspired 
William  Tyndale  to  give  the  Bible  to  the  ploughboy  and  peasant  in  the 
language  they  could  understand  and  feel;  and  not  less  I  claim  did  the 
same  divine  inspiration  lead  John  Smith,  Thomas  Helwisse,  and  Leonard 
Busher  to  discover  and  promulgate  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the 
human  soul  to  freedom  from  the  dictation  of  the  civil  magistrate  in 
matters  of  religion.  The  first  gave  us  the  Bible ;  the  second  won  for  us 
an  open  road  to  it;  that  illumined  the  mind,  this  set  free  the  conscience 
to  follow  its  illumination ;  the  new  version  dissipated  the  gloom  and 
drove  away  the  night,  the  new  teaching  shook  and  shattered  to  pieces 
the  monopoly  of  a  sacerdotal  caste,  and  gave  liberty  to  the  soul  of  man. 
The  translators  in  that  supreme  moment  of  the  liberation  of  Eng- 
land, sent  out  a  rendering  of  the  Word  of  God  in  language  so  beautifully 
simple,  so  matchless  in  its  cadences  and  majestic  in  its  music,  that  it 
has  taken  its  place  as  one  of  the  foremost  factors  in  our  religious  de- 
velopment :  acted  as  a  strong  bond  of  union  amongst  all  English-speak- 
ing peoples,  and  an  inspiration  to  the  service  of  mankind.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Pilgrims  from  Holland,  by  the  same  spirit,  enriched  the  ages 
by  telling  out  the  four  supreme  lessons  they  had  learnt  in  their  exile,  to 
the  effect  that  "(1)  In  matters  of  religion  there  should  be  absolute  lib- 
erty. (2)  The  Church  of  Christ  is  a  company  of  the  faithful.  (3)  Bap- 
tism as  an  initial  rite  of  the  Church  should  be  administered  only  on  a 
profession  of  faith,  and  (4)  Every  community  of  believers  is  autono- 
mous,— subject  only  to  the  headship  of  Christ."*  Those  two  mighty 
forces  were  necessary  to  each  other;  factors  working  together  for  the 
same  ends,  for  perfecting  the  work  of  the  Reformation,  breaking  up  feu- 
dalism, quickening  inquiry,  rousing  zeal  for  right  and  truth,  effecting  the 
exodus  of  the  Church  from  the  Goshen  in  which  it  was  enslaved,  and  in 
short  making  our  modern  world.  It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  as 
without  the  Bible  we  should  have  had  no  Puritans  or  Separatists  or  Pil- 
grim Fathers,  so  without  the  Baptist  doctrine  that  magistrates  "must 
leave  the  Christian  religion  free  to  every  man's  conscience  because  Christ 
only  is  King  and  Lawgiver  of  the  Church  and  conscience, ' '  Britain  would 
still  have  been  a  prison  for  all  Baptists, — as  it  is  occasionally  now  for 
some  of  them,  Rhode  Island  would  not  have  been  founded,  and  this  vast 
democratic  Republic  would  have  been  waiting  to  see  the  light. 

In  this  assembly  therefore  we  hail  this  commemorative  3'ear  on  both 
grounds;  for  our  fathers  were  advocates  of  freedom  because  they  were 
men  of  the  Book.  The  Bible  made  them  as  it  has  made  us.  It  is  our 
only  creed,  as  it  was  theirs.  They  were  nourished  on  the  pure  milk  of 
the  Word,  as  we  are  still.  They  found  their  charter  of  freedom  in 
Christ,  whose  unique  figure  they  beheld  in  its  pages,  and  so  have  we. 
For  the  statutes  of  their  pilgrimage  they  turned  to  Him,  and  made  it 
their  business  to  study  and  expound  them,  and  that  this  is  still  our 
spiritual  instinct  and  habit  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  the  two  greatest 
preachers  of  the  last  century  Avere  Biblicists  and  Baptists :  for  Dr.  Hast- 
ings saj'S  that  MacLaren's  "Exposition  of  Holy  Scripture"  is  the  most 
gigantic  feat  of  sermon  making  accomplished  by  any  single  man  in  mod- 

*Cf.    Principal   Gould,    "The   Tercentenary   of   the   Modern    Baptist   Denomination. 
The  Origins." 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  lihX'OIW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  59 

em  times,  with  the  exception  of  Spurgeon's  ''Metropolitan  Tabernacle 
Pulpit."  Antl  he  adds:  ''It  is  noticeable  that  he  also  was  a  Baptist. 
What  is  the  secret?"  he  inquires;  and  his  answer  is:  "It  is  simply  tidel- 
it}-  to  the  written  Word.  It  is  simply  the  fact  that  both  Spurgeon  and 
MacLaren  were  expositors." 

IV. 

Another  cord  binding  us  together  in  an  indissoluble  spiritual  union, 
and  clothing  this  Alliance  with  a  true  catholicity  is  our  unswerving 
maintenance  of  an  exclusively  regenerated  church-membership.  We  are 
as  I  have  said  men  of  the  Book,  not  of  its  letter,  but  of  its  spirit,  and  of 
the  Spii'it  who  inspired  tlie  men  who  wrote  it.  We  hold  to  the  Christ 
of  history,  and  of  doctrine,  but  also  to  Christ  in  the  soul,  new  light  for 
the  conscience,  new  energy  for  the  Avill,  a  new  interpretation  of  life, 
and  a  new  outlook  for  the  future,  and  we  make  that  spiritual  experi- 
ence the  basis  of  our  free  and  voluntary  association  as  churches.  On 
spiritual  experience  we  build;  not  on  creeds;  but  on  "conversion,"  "a 
change  of  heart,"  the  awakening  of  the  soul  to  God  in  Christ;  regenera- 
tion by  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  conscious  possession  of  the  mind  and  spirit  of 
Jesus,  a  will  surrendered  to  God,  a  life  dedicated  to  His  service.  We 
say  with  John  Smith,  that  "no  part  of  saving  righteousness  consists  in 
outward  ceremonies"  and  inculcate  with  Paul,  "that  circumcision  is 
nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is  nothing,"  but  "faith  which  woi'keth  by 
love,"  "keeping  the  commandments  of  God,"  becoming  a  "new  creation 
in  Christ";  that  is  all  in  all. 

Therefore  we  preach  "soul  liberty,"  and  contend  against  all  comers 
that  the  spirit  of  man  has  the  privilege  of  direct  conscious  relation  to 
God  in  Christ  and  through  Christ.  Nothing  may  come  between  the  soul 
and  God.  Xot  the  priest,  whatever  his  claims;  he  will  cloud  the  vision 
of  Christ,  and  put  a  fetter  on  the  soul's  freedom;  not  the  theologian; 
he  may  help,  if  he  keeps  his  true  place;  but  he  may  check  individual 
search  for  truth  and  emasculate  the  man;  not  even  the  church,  for  it  may 
wrap  the  spirit  in  conventions,  and  tie  it  up  with  red  tape;  not  the 
State,  it  will  imprison  energy  and  check  growth.  The  soul  must  be 
free.  All  the  Lord's  people  are  potential  prophets  and  liberty  is  the 
vital  breath  of  prophecy.  To  every  one  is  given  the  spirit  to  do  good 
with;  and  the  first  law  of  the  spirit  is  that  there  must  be  no  quenching 
of  its  fires.  Grace  is  free  from  first  to  last,  i.  e.,  God  is  free  in  His  ad- 
vent to  the  soul  and  His  work  within,  to  redeem  it.  to  renew  it,  to  raise 
it  to  the  heights  of  moral  energy,  and  fashion  it  after  his  likeness. 
Freedom  is  inherent  in  the  very  conception  of  the  spiritual  life,  and 
therefore  there  must  be  "ample  room  and  verge  enough"  within  the 
territories  of  the  Church  for  the  full  expression  of  an  eager,  intense,  and 
sanctified  individualism.* 

We  know  our  insistence  upon  freedom  has  its  risks:  but  they  may  be 

•Mr.  Richard  Heath,  In  the  "Contemporary  Review,"  Vol.  54,  p.  398,  speaking 
of  Continental  Baptists  three  centuries  ago,  says :  "They  held  that  each  man  had 
within  himself  a  Divine  Teacher  who  would  lead  them  into  all  truth,  and  whose 
voice  they  must  obey,  let  the  cost  be  what  it  might."  "This  I  know,"  said  Hans 
Denclf.  "in  myself  certainly  to  be  the  truth,  therefore,  I  will,  if  God  will,  listen  to 
what  it  shall  say  to  mo;  him  that  would  talce  it  from  me  I  will  not  permit."  The 
Zurich  brethren  prayed :  "O  God,  grant  us  Intrepid  prophets,  who.  without  any 
additions  Invented  by  man,  shall  preach  thine  own  Eternal  Word."  But  In  this 
Word  it  is  Christ  Himself,  not  the  letter  concerning  Him.  who  rules,  for  "the  root 
of  study  and  the  mirror  of  life  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  the  gospel  of  Christ." 


60  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

avoided;  whereas  the  stagnation  and  death  that  follow  the  enslavement 
of  the  human  soul  are  inevitable.  We  know  our  distrust  of  over-organi- 
zation, and  mortal  dread  of  machinery  has  deprived  us  of  speedy  suc- 
cesses and  blocked  rapid  advance :  but  it  has  given  free  course  to  per- 
sonality and,  at  last,  men  are  learning  that  personality  is  the  one  thing 
needful  and  that  the  best  made  machinery  cannot  do  the  work  of  souls 
in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  free  play. 

A  friend  writes  to  me  saying:  ''It  is  a  very  great  thing  for  Baptists 
to  be  joined  together  to  help  and  encourage  those  of  like  faith  in  the 
maintenance  of  their  convictions  under  the  stress  of  governments  and  au- 
thorities which  personally  I  think  I  should  find  it  very  difficult  to  with- 
stand, certainly  impossible  for  me  if  I  could  not  'endure  as  seeing  Him 
who  is  invisible. '  But  I  hope  that  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  may 
never  become  a  'Catholic'  Baptist  'Council,'  to  dominate  the  expres- 
sion of  faith  and  ultimately  to  follow  the  other  Councils,  and  establish  a 
Baptist  'Papacy.'  I  fear  that  my  reading  of  the  signs  of  the  time  is 
that  autJiority  in  all  the  phases  of  life  is  supplanting  soul  liberty — 
whilst  it  is  soul  liberty  and  soul  intelligence  we  all  need."  Of  all  the 
churches  we  have  least  to  fear  in  that  direction. 

There  is  no  need  for  anxiety.  The  complete  autonomy  of  the  separate 
church  is  a  creation  of  grace,  and  will  not  suffer.  Each  society  will  in- 
sist on  maintaining  its  independence,  but  it  will  more  and  more  exercise 
it  so  as  to  secure  the  good  of  the  whole  brotherhood,  and  the  solid  ad- 
vance of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God 
will  not  be  impaired.  The  free  man  will  be  free;  but  he  will  use  his 
liberty  to  further  the  wider  aims  of  the  voluntary  association  of  believ- 
ers to  which  he  belongs,  and  for  co-operation  in  the  common  service  of 
men.  The  fact  is,  the  irrepressible  human  soul,  fed  on  the  liberty-giving 
word  of  God,  and  strengthened  with  the  free  grace  of  God,  will  and  must 
assert  itself.  The  i^ersonal  is  the  real.  The  soul  is  the  man ;  the  real 
man,  and  filled  and  fired  by  the  Spirit  of  God  it  is  like  radium.  It  burns 
on  and  on,  and  still  abides.  It  gives  out  its  light,  and  remains  unex- 
hausted, insuppressible  by  hierarchies  and  oligarchies,  and  the  whole 
tribe  of  oppressors.  It  may  be  trusted  to  assert  its  rights,  that  is  to  say, 
the  grace  of  God  within  the  soul,  working  there  by  His  infinite  love  will 
follow  the  guidance  of  His  indwelling  Spirit  into  all  truth  and  service, 
and  discover  in  subjection  to  Christ  Jesus,  the  Lord;  not  only 
his  fullest  liberty,  but  also  an  inspiration  to  the  suppression  of  the 
selfish  self,  and  an  encouragement  to  add,  along  with  faith,  a  noble  and 
manly  character,  and  to  a  noble  character,  knowledge;  to  knowledge, 
self-control :  along  with  self-control,  power  of  endurance,  and  along  with 
power  of  endurance,  godliness,  and  to  godliness,  brotherly  affection;  and 
to  brotherly  affection,  love. 

V. 

In  speaking  of  the  work  of  this  Alliance  it  is  important,  at  the  outset, 
to  recall  the  limitations  imposed  upon  us  by  our  ecumenical  character. 
From  sheer  necessity  we  are  not  competent  to  judge  one  another's  local 
work  with  accuracy.  We  lack  sufficient  data.  We  miss  the  special  point 
of  view.  We  are  too  far  apart  and  we  have  the  enormous  difficulty  of  the 
"personal  equation."  Britishers  do  not  know  the  United  States  and  yet 
some  of  them  do  not  hesitate  from  passing  sentence  upon  the  American 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  UFA'ORD   OF  I'ROCEIJDiyGS.  61 

churches,  stating  their  problems,  and  showing  how  they  could  be  solved, 
even  though  they  have  only  had  the  opportunity  of  paying  a  flying  visit 
to  these  climes;  and  they  do  it  apparently  unaware  that  their  verdicts 
are  no  more  than  thinly  disguised  assertions  of  their  own  prejudices  and 
presuppositions.  Nor  can  Americans  estimate  the  weight  of  the  social 
pressure  on  Baptists  in  England,  and  the  enormous  resistance  Ave  have 
to  overcome  in  lollowing  the  light  we  see.  You  do  not  see  the  diminished 
returns  in  the  till  of  the  village  shop,  and  the  persecution  in  the  village 
streets  consequent  upon  State  patronage  and  support  of  one  particu- 
lar church.  To  know  that  you  must  get  into  touch  with  our  village 
churches  as  I  have  done  for  more  than  tifty  years. 

Physicians  tell  us  there  are  no  climatal  diseases  now.  They  are  gone, 
or  rapidly  going.  They  used  to  say  that  diseases  were  tropical  or  sub- 
tropical, and  designate  certain  geographical  areas  as  the  homes  of  chol- 
era, malaria,  sleeping  sickness,  and  yellow  fever.  Now,  it  is  found  that 
these  diseases  are  in  all  latitudes,  and  that  the  question  is  not  where 
you  are;  but  in  what  hygienic  conditions  you  are  living.  No  doubt  it  is 
so;  and  it  is  some  advantage  to  know  that  ''climate"  is  only  one  of  the 
possible  contributor}'  causes  of  disease,  and  that  the  whole  set  of  condi- 
tions must  be  dealt  with  in  order  to  eradicate  the  disease.  So  the  con- 
ditions under  which  principles  have  to  be  wrought  into  the  life  of  the 
world  differ  innnensely,  and  we  are  bound  to  take  them  into  account. 
In  one  zone  the  disciple  of  Christ  is  perfectly  immune  from  the  microbes 
of  despotism  and  intolerance;  in  another  they  infest  everything  he 
touches  and  nearly  all  that  he  is.  England  offers  temptations  of  in- 
credible strength  to  avoid  our  churches,  or  to  leave  them  if  you  have  be- 
come attached  to  them.  Our  law,  for  example,  penalizes  the  citizen 
seeking  to  enter  into  or  to  rise  higher  in  the  ranks  of  State  School  Teach- 
ers, if  he  is  a  Baptist.  In  Hungary  our  churches  cannot  own,  hold  and 
administer  property  except  on  terms  that  fetter  their  free  action  as 
Christian  communities.  But  in  our  Australian  Colonies,  and  in  your  free 
Commonwealth  such  difficulties  do  not  occur,  or  if  they  do  arise,  it  is  in 
a  most  attenuated  form. 

These  and  similar  facts  must  of  necessity  shape  the  character  and  de- 
termine the  contents  of  the  advice  given  with  regard  to  specially  local 
conditions,  and  compel  us  to  move  on  high  and  broad  planes  opened  out 
to  us  by  the  historic  and  universal  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  on 
which  the  Alliance  is  built.  These  it  is  our  business  to  maintain  in  their 
integi-ity  and  propagate  with  zeal,  generosity,  and  self-sacrifice;  so  that 
we  may  carry  them,  at  the  earliest  possible  hour,  to  their  pre-destined 
place  in  the  whole  religious  life  of  mankind. 

(2)  Our  all-inclusive  Avork  is  that  of  bringing  in  the  kingdom  of  our 
God  and  of  His  Christ.  That  one  thing  we  must  do.  It  is  for  that  we 
have  been  laid  hold  of  by  Christ,  and  called  by  His  CTace.  We  have  a 
gospel  for  the  world.  We  begin  at  the  cross,  not  at  the  baptistery.  God 
has  sent  us  to  preach  the  gospel,  not  to  baptize  men  in  platoons  or  ii* 
their  unwitting  infancy.  We  have  to  mediate  the  truth  to  men  that  the 
power  at  the  back  of  all  things  is  the  Eternal  Father,  eager  to  enter  into 
a  direct  and  conscious  relation  with  them  through  His  Son  Jesus.  We 
preach  Christ  and  Christ  crucified.  We  stand  at  the  cross,  see  Jesus  in 
the  awful  light  of  Gethseraane  and  Calvary,  "as  the  propitiation  of  our 
sins,  and  not  for  ours  only."  "Not  for  ours  only."  There  is  nothing 
limited  or  partial  in  the  love  of  God.    It  sweeps  the  human  race  within 


62  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

its  embrace.  God  Himself  commends  His  love  towards  us,  in  that  whilst 
we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us,  "Not  for  ours  only,  but  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world. ' '  With  one  hand  on  the  ci'oss,  we  reach  out  with 
the  other  to  the  circumference  of  the  human  race.  We  are  therefore 
missionary.  We  do  not  keep  silence.  We  cannot.  We  have  to  tell  all 
men  of  the  Father's  love  and  grace;  that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing  to  men  their  trespasses.  Necessity 
is  laid  upon  us.  We  are  debtors  to  all  men.  Whether  we  be  beside  our- 
selves, it  is  God,  or  whether  Ave  be  sober,  it  is  for  the  cause  of  man.  For 
the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us,  for  we  judge  that  He  died  for  all,  that 
we  Avho  live  should  not  live  unto  ourselves,  but  unto  Him  who  died  for  us 
and  rose  again. 

It  is  a  source  of  unfailing  joy  to  us  to  feel  that  this  our  primary  work 
links  us  with  the  holy  church  throughout  the  world,  relates  us  to  every 
believer  in  Jesus,  in  any  church  or  in  none;  makes  us  one  with  the  self- 
forgetting  missionaries  of  all  societies  who  hazard  their  lives  for  the 
sake  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  and  yet  in  our  witness  on  behalf  of  the 
simplicity  and  purity,  fulness  and  sufficiency  of  the  salvation  offered  to 
men  in  Christ,  we  have  to  repeat  and  maintain  the  protest  our  fathers 
started  against  all  the  corruptions  of  Christianity.  Everywhere  we  repu- 
diate the  teaching  that  entrance  into  a  visible  church  is  either  salvation  in 
itself  or  a  condition  of  receiving  it.  If  men  would  only  believe  it,  our 
emphatic  witness  as  to  the  place  of  baj^tism  is  entirely  due  to  our  an- 
tagonism to  the  notion  that  sacraments  have  any  saving  efficacy,  and 
that  the  so-called  "developments"  of  the  "germ"  of  original  Christi- 
anity are  at  variance  with  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  contra- 
diet  Peter  and  John  and  Paul,  cloud  the  vision  of  God.  check  the  free 
outflow  of  the  Divine  mercy,  debase  the  religious  ideal,  lower  morals, 
add  to  the  power  of  the  priests,  and  derogate  from  the  authority  and 
glory  of  the  Redeemer  of  men.* 

(3)  Everybody  knows  that  this  protest  involved  separation  from  other 
churches  at  the  first,  but  does  it  necessitate  separation  still  1  and  separa- 
tion at  a  time  when  the  forces  making  for  ecclesiastical  federation  and 
unity  are  working  with  unprecedented  strength? 

First,  this  must  not  be  doubted,  that  we  rejoice  in  the  efforts  now 
being  made  on  behalf  of  unity  of  the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
gladly  co-operate  with  these  endeavors.  We  crave  it.  We  pray  for  it. 
We  should  hold  ourselves  guiltj'  if  we  created  or  upheld  any  ecclesias- 
tical division  on  mere  technicalities  of  the  faith  or  on  insignificant  de- 
tails of  the  practice  of  churches.  We  endeavor  to  keep  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace. 

But  with  equal  frankness  we  say  that  a  visible,  formal,  and  mechanical 
unity  has  no  charm  for  us  whatever.  It  is  not  the  unity  Jesus  prayed 
for;  nor  is  it  the  unity  that  increases  spiritual  efficiency,  augments 
righteousness,  or  advances  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Nor  can  Ave  forget  that 
the  welding  of  the  churches  together  by  bands  of  State  gold  mostly 
leads  to  slavery  and  not  freedom,  to  subserAdency  and  not  manliness,  to 


*"The  American  Commonwealth,"  Vol.  II,  p.  773  :  The  Right  Hon.  James  Bryce, 
"The  reason  why  denominations  comparatively  small  in  England,  have,  like  the  Meth- 
odists and  Baptists,  swelled  to  vast  proportions  here,  Is  because  the  social  conditions 
under  which  they  throve  in  England  were  here  reproduced  on  a  far  larger  scale.  In 
other  words,  the  causes  which  have  given  their  relative  importance  and  their  local  dis- 
tribution to  American  denominations  have  been  racial  and  social  rather  than  ecclesias- 
tical." 


Tuesday,  .luiiL'  20. 1  RI'A(U{I>   OF   l'l!()('i:i:i)l  \(1^.  63 

stagnation  and  not  life.  As  to  the  unity  of  Rome,  the  unity  of  an  eccle- 
siastical empire  rigidly  ordered  under  one  priest  as  emperor,  history  has 
judged  it,  and  condemned  it,  out  and  out.  We  distinctly  disavow  any 
lianUoring  after  a  world-wide  unity  of  organization  on  the  idatforra  of 
that  ol  tiie  Seven  Hills,  on  the  one  hand,  or  that  of  Moscow  on  the  other, 
conlident  that  it  would  suffocate  originality  of  thought,  block  boldness 
of  initiative,  quench  enthusiasm  and  letter  souls  in  what  ought  to  be  the 
very  citadel,  and  best  defence,  of  freedom.  Unity  of  life,  of  love,  and  of 
governing  ideas  and  ideals,  let  us  have  by  all  means,  but  unity  of  "or- 
der," of  ''machinery"  or  of  ''creed,"  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  "unity 
in  diversity"  either  of  Nature  or  of  Grace. 

Besides  it  avails  nothing  to  make  light  of  the  fact  that  we  do  not 
think  as  Christendom  thinks  on  the  vital  elements  of  Christianity.  The 
great  historic  churches  are  against  us:  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Eastern, 
the  Anglican,  and  some  other  communions;  and  against  us  on  subjects 
that  go  to  the  uttermost  depths  of  the  soul  of  the  gospel  of  Christ;  and 
therefore  "Separation"  is  one  of  the  inevitable  conditions  of  faithful- 
ness to  our  experience  of  tne  grace  of  God,  to  our  interpretation  of  the 
claims  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  principles  He  has  given  as  the  ground 
and  spliere  of  our  collective  life.  It  cannot  be  helped.  We  accept  the 
isolation,  and  all  the  penalties  it  involves. 

For  it  is  most  unthankful  work.  It  means  sacrifice;  it  shuts  us  out  of 
alliances  we  would  gladly  join,  and  excludes  us  from  circles  of  rare  ex- 
hilaration and  charm,  but  it  is  useful  as  w^ell  as  necessary.  Christianity 
owes  its  continuance  amongst  men  to  the  insuppressible  race  of  protes- 
ters. It  would  liave  remained  in  the  swaddling  bands  of  Judaism,  and 
been  cradled  as  a  Jewish  sect,  if  the  Spirit  of  God  had  not  pushed  Peter 
into  the  protesting  line.  Nor  would  it  have  become  in  the  first  century 
a  universal  religion,  had  not  that  matchless  statesman,  the  Apostle  Paul, 
vigorously  resisted  all  the  traditional  and  conventional  defenders  of  the 
racial  and  sectarian  religion.  "In  Tertullian's  century  there  seemed 
some  prospect  that  every  characteristic  feature  of  the  gospel  would  be 
so  're-stated'  as  to  leave  the  gospel  entirely  indistinguishable  from  any 
other  eclectic  system  of  the  moment."  But  Tertullian  would  have  none 
of  it.  His  protest  was  strong  and  clear.  "Let  them  look  to  it,"  he 
said,  "who  have  produced  a  Stoic  and  Platonic  and  dialectic  Christianity. 
We  need  no  curiosity  who  have  Jesus  Christ;  no  inquiry  Avho  have  the 
gospel."*  The  Lollards  were  protestants.  John  Huss,  and  John  Wyc- 
lifFe,  could  only  save  the  gospel  by^  exposing  the  falsehoods  under  which 
it  was  buried.  Luther  burning  the  Pope's  bull,  which  was  the  chief  ex- 
pression of  the  current  Christianity,  is  a  dramatic  demonstration  of  the 
way  he  made  room  for  the  saving  truths  of  the  Reformation.  Robert 
Browne  left  the  church,  and  "without  tarrying  for  any"  gave  an  impact 
to  the  reforming  movement  which  it  never  lost.  Bishop  Hall  wrote  to 
Robinson,  the  Pilgrim  Father:  "There  is  no  remedy.  You  must  go  for- 
ward to  Anabaptism,  or  come  back  to  ns He  (and  the  Bishop 

is  speaking  of  our  John  Smith),  tells  you  true;  your  station  is  unsafe." 
It  was  unsafe,  and  so  they  left  it  in  order  to  give  security  to  the  truth  of 
the  gospel  of  God.  Hitherto  it  has  been  the  only  way  of  keeping  the  soul 
of  Christianity  alive.  There  is  no  other  effective  method.  Puritanism 
endeavored  to  dispense  with  it.  Separation  seemed  harsh  and  hard.  It 
wore  the  garb  of  self-assertion.     It  exposed  to  censure.     It  looked  like 

♦  "The  Conflict  of  Religions  In  the  Early  Roman  Empire."  by  T.  R.  Glover,  p.  338. 


64  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

schism;  but  it  was  the  only  way  to  escape  a  creeping  paralysis  followed 
by  death.  The  Evangelicals  in  the  Anglican  Church  tried  it.  Hating 
Rome  and  battling  against  it,  they  remained  in  the  Protestant  Church 
under  the  terms  of  the  compromise  effected  between  Eome  and  Geneva 
in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  They  were  Protestants,  and  wished  the 
church  to  be  Protestant  in  reality  as  well  as  in  name.  They  saw  the  truth 
of  Bagehot  's  declaration  that  * '  the  articles  of  the  Church  of  England 

were  less  a  compromise  than  an  equivocation A  formula  on 

which  two  parties  could  unite  and  go  their  separate  ways  under  an  ap- 
pearance of  unity";  but  they  believed  they  could  purify  the  Church  of 
England  by  staying  in  it;  but  the  result  after  300  years  is  that  the  Ro- 
man elements  are  more  definitely  paramount  than  at  any  time  since  the 
reign  of  Queen  Mary.  The  Separatists  felt  they  could  do  little  or  noth- 
ing from  within,  and  therefore  they  came  out,  and  followed  the  churches 
of  the  New  Testament  as  the  model  of  the  new  society  they  created. 
Wakeman,  in  his  "History  of  Religion  in  England,"  uses  this  significant 
expression  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Free  Churches:  ''When  men  became 
really  instead  of  decorously  religious,  they  broke  away  from  the  estab- 
lished order  and  sought  the  realization  of  their  deeper  faith  in  the  or- 
ganization of  a  more  primitive  type."  It  was  separation  for  the  sake 
of  life  and  usefulness. 

Hence,  for  generations  to  come,  eager  as  we  are  for  the  unity  of  all 
believers  in  Christ,  and  resolved  to  remove  wherever  we  can  the  grounds 
and  causes  of  division,  yet  necessity  is  laid  upon  us,  "to  go  forward  to 
Anabaptism"  as  Bishop  Hall  said,  and  not  to  go  back  to  any  other 
church.  We  have  to  lift  up  our  voice  against  that  capital  error  of  Chris- 
tendom, that  source  of  immeasurable  damage  to  the  gospel  and  to  souls, 
the  magical  interpretation  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  treat- 
ment of  the  baptism  of  the  babe  as  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  as  expressed  in  the  New  Testament  and  as  a  way  of  salvation. 
We  must  stand  aloof  from  it.  We  can  have  no  part  or  lot  in  it.  In  a 
word,  we  must  be  in  a  position  to  give  a  full,  clear,  unconfused  witness  to 
the  cardinal  principles  of  our  faith  and  life. 

(4)  Again,  we  have  not  only  to  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  for 
all  delivered  lo  the  saints,  and  forming  the  old  gospel  and  for  the  pure 
gospel,  stripped  free  of  the  accretions  of  the  ages;  but  if  we  are  to  be 
true  to  the  earliest  Christianity  of  all,  and  to  the  spirit  and  work  of  the 
creators  of  our  Modern  Baptist  denomination,  we  must  also  advocate  and 
work  for  the  Social  Gospel. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  give  evidence  of  the  arrival  of  a  new 
social  ideal  and  impulse  in  the  Christianity  of  Christ.  That  is 
admitted.  Nor  is  it  to  be  questioned  that  as  early  as  1527,  the 
Anabaptists  were  promulgating  their  revolutionary  ideas,  demanding  lib- 
erty for  all  men  in  matters  of  religion,  applying  the  law  of  Christ  to 
every  relation  of  life,  and  specially  to  the  ordering  of  the  affairs  of 
States.  Strong  as  they  were  as  individualists,  they  were  by  the  force 
of  the  same  principles,  collectivists  or  socialists,  and  socialists  in  a  hurry 
being  nearly  three  centuries  before  their  time ;  and  therefore  they  had  to 
suffer  accordingly.  It  was  natural,  if  premature  and  unexpected,  for 
Baptist  ideas  carry  us  with  tremendous  momentum  to  the  side  of  the 
"common  man,"  as  a  son  of  God,  as  our  brother,  of  value  in  himself 
incomputable  and  of  possibilities  measureless;  with  rights  that  must  be 
defended  for  the  sake  of  duties  that  must  be  done;  possessed  of  claims 


Tuesday,  June  20.1  liECORD  OF  PROCEEDIXGS.  66 

on  the  collective  resources  and  activities  of  society  that  must  be  con- 
ceded for  the  sake  ol'  the  brotlierhood  of  man  and  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

''Liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity"  were  in  the  heart  of  the  Baptist 
faith.  The  deliverance  of  the  poor  out  of  the  hand  of  tlie  evil-doers  be- 
comes a  primary  duty  when  you  once  really  accept  Christ's  estimate 
of  the  worth  of  man.  Poverty  must  be  dealt  with  in  its  causes.  Charity 
must  not  be  accepted  as  a  substitute  for  Justice.  Justice  must  limit  the 
range  of  charity,  and  leave  no  room  for  it  that  justice  ought  to  fill.  So- 
cial misery  must  be  extinguished ;  unjust  laws  must  be  repealed.  The 
men  who  have  been  "flattened  out"  by  the  long  tramp  of  misery,  must 
be  rescued,  healed,  strengthened  and  set  on  tlicir  own  feet.  Whoever 
touches  these  social  problems  with  a  timorous  hand,  we  assuredly  must 
grip  them  firmly  and  courageously  and  persistently,  and  attempt  their 
solution  or  be  traitors  to  that  word  of  the  Lord  by  which  we  live. 

We  are  held  by  the  most  sacred  bonds  to  seek  the  fullest  realization  of 
universal  brotherhood.  To  us  war  is  a  crime,  and  the  promotion  of  inter- 
national peace  one  of  our  foremost  duties.  The  duel  of  nations  must 
disappear  in  this  century  as  the  duel  of  individuals  in  the  English-speak- 
ing countries,  disappeared  in  the  nineteenth.  No  doubt  there  are  dis- 
couraging and  reactionary  appearances,  but  we  must  feed  the  deep  and 
hidden  currents  of  the  Avorld's  life  so  steadily  setting  towards  peace.  In 
the  increasing  complexity  of  modern  life  we  have  to  fight  against  all  the 
encroachments  of  might  on  the  rights  of  the  weak,  against  commercial 
and  social,  military  and  ecclesiastical  systems  linked  together  for  the 
defence  of  wrong.  We  must  break  them  up,  and  prepare  them  for  the 
fire  in  which  all  that  injures  man,  God's  child,  and  stands  in  the  way  of 
his  redemption  and  total  regeneration,  shall  be  consumed. 

Man  must  be  free  to  work  out  his  own  salvation,  to  realize  himself, 
and  to  enthrone  God  in  Christ,  in  the  whole  life  of  mankind. 

VI. 

And  now  standing  upon  this  eminence,  let  us  ask  what  is  the  outlook 
for  the  Baptist  people  all  over  the  earth?  What  is  the  position  likely  to 
be  assigned  to  us  in  leading  and  shaping  the  religious  life  of  mankind? 

To  answer  that  question  we  need  ask  first,  towards  what  sea  are  the 
deeper  currents  of  thought  and  action  in  modern  civilization  setting? 
What  is  the  "stream  of  tendency"  amongst  the  progressive  peoples? 
Is  it  with  our  principles  or  against  them? 

The  reply  is  unequivocal  and  complete. 

(1)  Protestantism  is  to  the  fore.  The  races  leading  the  life  of  the 
world  are  either  distinctively  Protestant,  as  in  Britain  and  the  United 
States  or  they  are  effectively  using  Protestant  ideas  as  weapons  against 
Roman  Catholicism  as  in  France  and  Spain.  "The  Dissidence  of  Dis- 
sent" holds  the  field,  if  not  in  form,  in  fact.  Modernism  is  sapping  Rome 
in  its  strongholds,  as  in  Italy  and  Austria.  Those  who  know  Romanism 
most  intimately  are  ashamed  of  its  morals,  rebel  against  its  tyranny  of 
the  intellect,  are  indignant  with  its  interdict  upon  united  social  service, 
and  resent  its  treatment  of  leaders  in  science,  philosophy,  and  religion. 
In  Germany  and  in  England  and  in  some  of  our  colonies,  gigantic  ef- 
forts are  being  made  to  caj^ture  the  Teuton  and  the  Saxon,  but  the  suc- 
cesses they  have  secured  are,  neither  in  character  nor  number,  such  as  to 
invalidate  the  conclusion  that  Protestantism  is  one  of  the  chief  factors 
moulding  the  coming  generations  of  men. 


66  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIA^'CE. 

(2)  The  leaven  of  teaching  concerning  the  intervention  of  the  magis- 
trate in  religious  affairs  cast  by  John  Smith  and  Roger  Williams  into 
the  three  measures  of  human  meal  in  Holland  and  England  and  America, 
has  been  doing  its  work.  The  United  States  has  established  forever 
the  doctrine  of  the  neutrality  of  the  State  towards  all  Christian  societies. 
France  has  cut  the  concordat  in  twain,  and  State  and  Church  are  free  of 
each  other.  Portugal  is  doing  the  same  this  year.  Welsh  Disestablish- 
ment is  at  the  doors.  And  though  England,  as  usual,  lags  behind,  yet 
both  within  and  without  the  Anglican  Church  the  conviction  that  separa- 
tion is  just,  gains  strength,  and  all  that  is  wanted  is  the  opportunity  to 
translate  the  conviction  into  legislative  deed. 

(3)  In  like  manner  the  reflective  forces  of  the  age  make  against  an 
exclusive  and  aggressive  priestism.  Indeed,  it  has  received  its  sentence 
of  death,  and  is  only  waiting  for  the  executioner.  It  has  to  go.  A  pro- 
fessor trained  in  the  higher  ranges  of  the  Anglican  Church  says :  *  *  A  re- 
vival of  any  form  of  sacerdotal  Christianity  would  be  an  appalling  ca- 
lamity to  the  human  race. "  *  In  the  nature  of  things  that  revival  cannot 
come.  Never  was  the  proportion  of  thinking  men  so  large  as  now.  Per- 
sonality becomes  more  and  more  every  day,  and  officialism  less  and  less. 
Material  and  sensuous  as  the  age  is  in  many  of  its  aspects,  yet  character 
was  never  more  highly  appreciated  or  told  for  more  than  it  does  at  the 
present  time. 

(4)  Nor  can  prelacy  stand  against  the  divine  right  of  the  democracy. 
Although  the  cry  of  "Increase  the  Episcopate"  is  heard,  yet  the  Bishops 
themselves  admit  that  they  must  give  the  laity  some  share  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  affairs  of  prelatical  churches.  The  people  cannot  be  ex- 
cluded from  churches  or  from  nations.  Their  day  has  dawned ;  and  it  will 
go  on  to  its  full  noon.  Not  churches,  nor  parties,  not  nations  merely, 
but  the  people  are  the  legatees  of  the  future;  the  inheritance  is  theirs. 
Long  have  they  been  kept  out  of  it ;  but  every  year  witnesses  their  grow- 
ing consciousness  of  power  and  their  increased  determination  to  use  it. 
Washington  and  Jefferson,  Hamilton  and  Knox,  Franklin  and  Madison, 
and  the  men  who  framed  your  Constitution  in  this  city  uttered  with 
something  of  lyric  i^assion  this  great  message,  and  fixed  it  forever  in  the 
Charter  of  Independence.  France  thrilled  the  world  with  its  deeds  in 
the  people's  name,  and  sealed  with  the  blood  of  many  of  her  sons  and 
daughters  the  people's  cause.  Walt  Whitman,  rapt  into  ecstacy  with 
the  vision  of  the  advancing  people,  sings: 

''I  will  make  Divine  magnetic  land, 
With  the  love  of  comrades. 
With  the  life-long  love  of  comrades." 

And  then  again  he  asks : 

''What  whispers  are  these,  0  lands,  running  ahead  of  you,  passing  under 
the  seas? 
Are  all  nations  communing?  Is  there  going  to  be  but  one  heart  to  the 
globe?" 

Yonder  in  Russia,  Tolstoy  is  seized  by  the  spirit  of  universal  eomrade- 


*Lectures  and  Essays,  by  Professor  W.  K.  Clifford,  Vol.  I,  p.  251. 


Tuesday,  , June  20. 1  RlAiHil)   OF   I'ROCKEDIMIH.  67 

ship  in  the  cause  of  peace  and  purity,  of  righteousness  and  charity,  and 
tells  men  in  many  a  volume  of  quickening  thought,  expressed  in  stx-ong 
and  lucid  speech  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh  unto  them.  Nay, 
can  you  believe  it;  even  the  British  House  of  Lords  has  discovered  that 
it  is  an  irritating  anachronism,  a  gilded  stumbling-stone  in  the  way  of 
progress,  and  the  sooner  it  moves  out  of  the  way  the  better.  This  is  the 
reign  of  the  people.  The  issue  is  inevitable.  They  are  one.  They  know 
it:  and  they  will  act  as  one.  Instead  of  fighting  one  another,  they  will 
make  common  cause  with  each  other,  and  rule  the  Avorld  in  righteousness 
and  peace. 

(5)  But  the  most  outstanding  characteristics  of  our  time  is  the  amaz- 
ing dominance  of  the  idea  of  social  service.  The  age  is  permeated  with 
the  obligation  of  brotherhood,  the  duty  of  self-sacrificing  ministry,  to  the 
more  needy  members  of  the  Commonwealth.  "We  cannot  escape  it.  So- 
cial problems  are  supreme.  **The  condition  of  the  people"  question  is 
everywhere  surging  to  the  front.  Housing  and  health,  temperance  and 
purity,  drill  for  the  body,  education  for  the  mind;  these  and  kindred 
phases  of  life  are  never  out  of  sight.  The  churches  have  broadened  out  so 
as  to  embrace  them.  Institutions,  clubs,  spring  up  in  towns  and  villages 
to  deal  with  them.  Govex-nments  have  done  with  laissez  faire,  and  are 
taking  them  up.  The  British  Legislature  points  the  way  with  its  old 
age  pensions,  and  its  charter  for  the  industrial  classes.  As  a  doctor  it  is 
fighting  disease.  As  a  nurse  it  is  watching  over  the  invalid.  As  an  in- 
surance agent  it  is  arranging  help  for  those  who  are  out  of  work;  and 
doing  it  all,  we  cannot  forget,  through  a  political  leader  of  splendid 
genius  and  captivating  simplicity,  Avho  has  been  trained  from  childhood 
in  Baptist  ideas,  who  is  now  an  active  member  of  a  Baptist  church,  and 
whether  he  knows  it  or  not,  is  absorbed  in  applying  the  doctrines  of  the 
Anabaptist  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  needs  of  the  men  of  our  own 
day.  From  him  has  come  this  Great  Charter  of  the  Industrial  Classes; 
a  charter  conferring  untold  good  at  once,  and  also  foretelling  the  arrival 
of  a  new  era  in  the  commercial,  industrial,  and  social  condition  and  ac- 
tivities of  the  whole  woi'ld. 

(6)  And  all  this  movement  is  intensely  moral.  The  illuminated  and 
energized  conscience  is  in  it.  It  is  ennobled  by  a  high  ethic.  The  Spirit 
has  "convinced  the  ivorld  of  sin  and  righteousness  and  judgment";  and 
in  the  strength  of  that  conviction,  a  concerted  and  compi'ehensive  attack 
is  being  made  by  churches  and  States,  by  individuals  and  societies  on  the 
strongliolds  of  injustice  and  misery,  and  a  long  stride  is  taken  to  that 
one  far-off  divine  event  towards  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 

VII. 

Need  I  trace  the  parallel  between  those  manifest  tendencies  of  this 
New  Century  and  the  principles  which  our  fathers  set  forth  and  which 
we  maintain?  Is  it  not  obvious  that  the  ideas  and  aims  are  ours,  and  that 
whatever  becomes  of  us  as  churches,  this,  at  least,  is  certain,  that  those 
ideas  of  ours  are  Avorking  mightily  as  the  formative  factors  of  the 
future? 

"The  sum  of  all  progress,"  says  Hegel,  "is  freedom."  On  freedom 
we  are  built,  for  freedom  we  fight;  and  towards  freedom  the  race  is 
everywhere  moving. 

Man  is  able  to  enunciate  his  own  law,  and  to  follow  it.  He  is  made 
to  govern  himself.     In  a  world  of  increasing  complexity  and  marvelous 


68  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

inter-play  of  vital  and  social  forces,  he  is  slowly  acquiring  self-govern- 
ment. Our  churches  are  autonomous,  and  have  proved  themselves  useful 
schools  in  the  mastery  of  the  art  of  self-rule. 

The  individual  enters  society,  and  is  made  by  it ;  social  responsibility 
educates  him;  social  service  purifies  and  expands  him.  The  more  com- 
plete his  free  and  equal  participation  in  the  social  organism,  the  richer 
his  life,  and  the  more  valuable  his  gifts  to  the  world.  Our  fellowships 
offer  such  aids.  Monopolies  are  excluded.  Caste  is  forbidden.  Work 
for  others  is  obligatory  and  inspired. 

But  though  the  parallel  in  those  and  other  respects  is  so  significant, 
we  cannot  forget  that  there  are  immense  ecclesiastical  organizations  oc- 
cupying vast  fields  enrolling  multitudes  of  members,  repudiating  us  and 
claiming  an  exclusive  right  to  preach  the  way  of  salvation,  and  to  direct 
the  religious  life  of  men. 

Islam,  for  example,  has  a  brilliant  history ;  controls  wide  regions,  at- 
tracts millions  of  adherents,  and  is  once  more  fired  with  missionary  zeal. 
Its  activity  is  ceaseless,  and  its  hope  of  conquest  bright;  but  it  must  be 
affected  by  the  rise  of  the  Young  Turks  with  their  antagonism  to  clerical- 
ism, hatred  of  intolerance,  symjaathy  with  justice  and  equality,  and  bold 
avowal  that  women  have  souls  as  well  as  men.  One  of  two  things  must 
follow;  either  the  leavening  of  Mohammedanism  with  Christian  ideas  or 
its  gradual  dissolution  under  the  powerful  solvent  of  the  current  prin- 
ciples of  modern  life. 

It  is  the  same  with  Roman  Catholicism.  It  asserts  the  right  to  an 
exclusive  dominion  over  the  minds  and  wills  of  men,  boasts  of  its  uni- 
versality, and  has  the  allegiance  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  be- 
lievers. But  Dr.  Cobb  says:  ''It  is  quite  impossible  to  think  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  possessing  any  determining  voice  in  the  religion 
of  the  future — unless  she  herself  is  first  reconstructed  so  as  to  bring  her 
on  to  the  line  of  modern  progress;  and  then  she  would  be  no  longer  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  something  entirely  different."* 

The  same  thing,  with  even  more  reason,  may  be  said  concerning  the 
Holy  Orthodox  Church  of  Russia. 

Then  we  are  left  to  the  Protestant  churches  in  their  several  denomina- 
tions. Of  the  Anglican  Church,  Dr.  Cobb,  who  is  himself  a  member  of 
that  Church,  affirms:  ''It  is  the  living  voice  we  ask  to  be  allowed  to  hear. 

It  is   the   dead   hand   which   we   feel   oppressive The   Free 

Churches  have  a  living  voice The  Church  of  England  alone 

among  the  churches  of  the  West  has  none. ' '  §  Without  endorsing  that 
verdict,  we  may  say  it  is  perfectly  true  that  all  Christian  churches  have 
some  truth,  and  live  and  serve  by  the  truth  they  hold,  and  the  truth  that 
really  holds  them ;  and  by  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  service  they  are 
rendering  to  humanity:  but  it  is  clear  (1)  that  it  is  the  genuine  Chris- 
tianity that  is  in  all  the  churches  that  will  give  the  determining  word 
and  influence,  (2)  that  Protestantism,  specially  in  the  Free  Churches, 
admittedlj'^  contains  and  embodies  more  of  the  primitive  gospel  than  the 
Roman  and  Greek  churches,  and  (3)  that  our  Baptist  churches  are  by 
the  principles  they  avow  and  the  ideas  they  hold  charged  with  a  respon- 
sibility second  to  none  for  inspiring,  directing  and  shaping  the  religion 
of  the  future. 

For  in  addition  to  our  ruling  ideas  we  have  a  freedom  as  to  verbal 


♦Hibbert  Journal,  1911,  p.  585. 
§Ibid,   p.   597. 


'luesilay,  June  20. J  UKVOUU   Of  I'UOVEEDlSUii.  69 

forms  of  belief  and  of  org:anized  collective  life,  though  we  are  so  im- 
movably fixed  as  to  principles,  that  leaves  us  wholly  at  liberty  to  adapt 
ourselves  to  the  teaching;  of  experience,  and  the  changing  needs  of  socie- 
ties as  continuously  living  organisms  can  and  must.  Biblical  criticism 
do"s  not  disturb  us,  for  we  do  not  rest  on  it,  but  on  personal  experience 
of  the  grace  of  Christ.  Modes  of  political  government  do  not  affect  us ;  we 
can  accept  any,  but  we  fare  best  under  the  most  democratic;  and  as  a 
matter  of  conviction  we  can  only  be  kept  out  of  politics  by  the  absence 
of  injustice,  of  interference  with  conscience,  of  lavoritism,  and  of  neg- 
lect of  the  weak  and  the  poor.  Collisions  with  the  people  cannot  occur, 
for  we  are  of  the  people,  and  one  with  them  in  their  popular  ideals  and 
democratic  aims.  I  do  not  say  that  Baptists  are  necessary  for  the  full 
development  and  final  triumph  of  these  principles.  We  are  not.  ''There 
is  no  man,  nor  any  body  of  men  necessary  for  anything,  not  even  the 
Prince  of  Denmark  to  Hamlet."  But  I  do  declare  with  my  whole  soul 
that  these  principles  are  necessary  to  the  strength  and  purity,  the  ful- 
ness and  harmony  of  the  religious  life  of  men;  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
church  that  can  give  the  most  living,  fresh,  and  powerful  embodiment  of 
them  will  find  itself  summoned  of  God  to  guide  the  races  of  men  through 
the  jungle  of  this  life  into  the  blissful  Canaan  God  has  prepared  for 
those  that  love  Him.  It  needs  the  best  men  and  the  best  churches  to 
carry  the  best  cause  to  victory;  the  men  and  the  churches  of  the  finest 
manhood,  of  the  tenderest  sympathy,  and  most  self-forgetting  love;  men 
and  churches  who  will  have  no  purpose  but  such  as  can  be  entirely  sub- 
ordinated to  the  glory  of  God  our  Redeemer;  churches  that  come  nearer 
to  that  divine  ideal  of  which  we  have  so  many  brilliant  glimpses  in  the 
Xew  Testament ;  churches  with  a  full  spiritual  life,  a  large  ministi'y — a 
brotherly  spirit,  and  a  broad  sweep  of  service;  churches  meeting  the 
needs  of  the  whole  life  of  man  with  a  whole  gospel;  churches  that  hold 
that  the  soul  to  be  saved  is  the  self,  all  the  self,  and  in  all  its  relations; 
that  we  are  ourselves  "social  settlements,"  communities  of  brothers  and 
sisters  of  Jesus,  willing  to  go  into  an  uninteresting  obscurity  for  the  sake 
of  men  lost  in  the  dark  regions  of  Slumdom,  or  to  ascend  into  the  high- 
est realms  of  culture  for  the  sake  of  spiritualizing  the  entire  life  through 
the  intellect. 

Two  duties  then  are  before  us,  one  is  to  keep  the  stock  of  human 
thought  enriched  by  the  ideas  and  principles  of  the  gospel  ot  Christ,  and 
the  other  is  to  add  to  the  stock  of  human  energy  engaged  in  the  saving 
of  men,  Paul 's  incredible  labor  was  as  necessary  to  his  missionary  suc- 
cesses as  the  revelation  which  came  to  him,  not  by  man  nor  from  man, 
but  from  God.  "Send  them  an  enthusiast,"  said  Dr.  Price  when  the 
first  Lord  Lansdowne  asked  what  he  should  do  to  reform  the  profligates 
of  Calne.  "Send  them  an  enthusiast."  Men  with  sloppy  ignorance  and 
sleepless  energy  often  achieve  more  than  individuals  crammed  with  li- 
braries of  knowledge  but  void  of  fire  and  passion.  The  best  constructed 
engine  stands  still  until  the  steam  is  up.  The  apprehension  of  our  capital 
ideas  will  avail  nothing  unless  we  are  ready  to  hazard  our  strength,  our 
money,  our  efforts  for  the  salvation  of  men.  The  harvest  truly  is  great, 
but  the  laborers  are  few.  It  is  work  that  is  needed.  "Come  over  and 
help  us"  is  (he  cry  sounding  in  our  ears  Irom  all  parts  of  the  world  and 
specially  from  Southeastern  Europe.  Churches  of  our  faith  and 
order  have  sprung  into  existence  in  Hungary  and  Austria,  Moravia  and 
Bulgaria,  Bohemia  and   Bosnia,   and   the   Russian   Empire.     Thousands 


70  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

upon  thousands  have  been  added  to  the  Lord,  They  are  persecuted,  but 
they  take  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  and  with  dauntless  cour- 
age spread  the  fire  of  their  evangelism  far  and  near.  They  need  our  help. 
They  call  upon  us  for  sympathy  and  guidance  in  the  training  of  their 
eager  pastors  and  evangelists,  colporteurs  and  missionaries.  They  wait 
our  response.  It  must  be  prompt,  practical,  and  sufficient.  It  must  be 
made  now. 

Let  us  then  humbly  accept  our  responsibility  for  leadership  of  the  re- 
ligion of  the  future  and  go  forward  to  our  place.  Pioneers  never  get 
the  best  pay,  but  they  do  the  best  work;  the  work  that  lasts  and  comes 
out  of  the  fire  because  it  is  not  inflammable  wood  but  gold  that  melted  in 
the  flames  is  coined  afresh,  and  sent  out  again  into  the  currency  of  the 
ages.  Do  not  wait  for  others !  Do  that  which  costs.  Wait  for  others, 
and  you  will  never  start.  Tarry  till  Baptists  are  socially  popular,  and 
ostracism  ceases,  and  the  persecutor  disappears  and  you  will  do  nothing. 
Keep  out  of  the  firing  line  with  your  principles,  and  nobody  will  know 
that  you  have  them.  The  bewitched  forest  heard  the  lies  told  by  the  evil 
spirit  that  the  first  tree  that  broke  into  blossom  in  the  spring  would 
be  withered  and  destroyed,  and  each  tree,  fearing  the  threatened  doom 
waited  for  the  other  to  begin,  and  so  the  Avhole  forest  remained  dark 
and  dead  for  a  thousand  years.  Away  with  fear.  Be  ready  to  endure  the 
cross  and  despise  shame.  Rise  to  the  courage  of  your  best  moments. 
Push  your  convictions  into  deeds.  Scorn  bribes.  Stand  true.  Be  faith- 
ful to  Christ  and  His  holy  gospel,  and  so  help  to  lead  the  whole  world 
into  the  light  and  glory  of  His  redeeming  love. 

At  the  close  of  the  address  the  audience  broke  into  prolonged  ap- 
plause and  cheers.  Some  one  started  the  singing  of  ''Blest  be  the  Tie 
that  Binds,"  which  was  taken  up  enthusiastically  and  followed  by  three 
cheers  for  Dr.  Clifford. 

Hymn,  ''Faith  of  Our  Fathers." 

Dr.  Prestkidge  :  I  have  not  mistaken  the  spirit  of  this  body  nor  of 
American  Baptists  and  of  other  Baptists.  Some  of  us  know — all  of  us 
know — that  Dr.  Clifford  is  growing  old  in  years.  This  is  the  first  time 
we  have  had  an  opportunity  to  crown  him.  God  only  knows  whether 
we  will  have  another  time.  We  must  have  an  expression  of  what  we 
feel  for  him  and  for  this  great  deliverance,  and  we  have  asked  Hon. 
Joshua  Levering — no  man  is  better  known  in  the  North  or  South — to  ex- 
press our  feelings  for  us. 

Hon.  Joshua  Levering:  No  man  could  stand  here  and  speak  after 
such  an  address  except  out  of  a  full  heart,  and  he  could  hardly  find 
words  to  express  himself.  We  have  all  stood  on  mountain  tops,  we 
have  heard  great  addresses,  we  have  been  stirred  at  times  by  great  emo- 
tion, but  I  appeal  to  you  brethren,  as  those  who  love  the  Lord  Christ 
and  love  his  word  and  believe  that  we  hold  it  in  sincerity  and  in  truth, 
has  there  ever  been  a  time  when  we  were  on  such  a  mountain  top  as  we 
have  been  on  here  to-day?  (Applause.)  We  sometimes  try  to  foretell 
the  future  and  look  into  the  acts  of  Providence,  but  we  quite  well  un- 


Tuesday,  Juno  20. J  h'h'VOh'l)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  71 

(lerstaiul  now  why  (Jud  uur  Father  has  spared  the  life  ol'  our  brother, 
why  he  has  given  him  this  fire  of  energy  and  of  intellect  and  has  en- 
abled him  to  come  across  the  waters  to  give  a  message  of  truth  which 
will  last  while  time  lasts  I  believe.  My  honored  and  beloved  brother,  I 
thank  God  for  your  presence,  and  I  believe  I  express  the  sentiment  of 
every  one  of  us,  and  not  only  of  every  one  of  us  but  of  the  millions  of 
Baptists  over  our  great  land  as  tliey  shall  hear  of  this  meeting  and  as 
they  shall  read  of  your  utterance  and  shall  say  Amen  to  every  word  that 
you  said,  when  I  say,  God  bless  you  and  spare  your  life  for  many  years, 
and  may  you  be  a  beacon  light  to  your  own  land  and  lead  them  out  of 
whatever  darkness  still  environs  them  into  tlie  light  and  liberty  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ. 

Dear  brethren,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  it  ?  Are  you  going 
home  to  say  we  had  a  wonderl'ul  time?  Now  there  are  these  copies 
printed;  they  are  not  for  circulation  only;  that  is  one  thing,  but  it  is 
easy  for  us  to  put  them  into  our  pockets  and  throw  them  into  the 
drawers  of  our  desks.  They  are  for  use.  Oh,  you  preachers,  forget  your 
own  sermons  and  go  to  your  people  and  read  it.  Take  Dr.  Strong's 
address  also,  and  make  those  two  your  thought,  and  your  teaching  to 
your  people,  until  they  shall  become  saturated  with  some  of  these  great, 
these  uplifting  truths,  fundamentals,  which  it  has  been  our  privilege 
to  listen  to.  Say  together  once  more,  We  rise  and  pay  honor  and  re- 
spect and  lay  a  crown  upon  our  beloved  brother's  head. 

Audience  rises  and  sings,  ^' Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds." 

Dr.  Clifford  :  My  Dear  Friends :  I  am  deeply  indebted  for  the  way  in 
which  you  have  responded  to  the  words  just  now  uttered  from  this  plat- 
form, concerning  my  address  and  concerning  myself.  I  thank  God  it  is 
my  Heavenly  Father  through  Jesus  Christ  who  has  brought  me  to  this 
day.  He  saved  me  as  a  lad,  for  it  is  sixty  years  ago  last  Friday  since 
I  was  baptized  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  through  all  these  sixty  years  he  has  been  not  only  my 
Saviour  but  my  leader,  and  my  one  supreme  desire  has  been  to  subor- 
dinate everything  in  me  and  through  me  to  his  honor  and  to  his  glory, 
and  therefore  all  the  words  you  have  said  about  me  I  give  to  him. 
C'Amen.")  I  do  not  think  I  am  going  to  die  yet;  (laughter  and  ap- 
plause) ;  I  often  take  encouragement  from  the  fact  that  my  grandmother 
lived  to  ninety-nine  and  a  half,  and  she  was  as  stout  as  I  am,  (laughter) 
and  I  don't  see  what  is  the  good  of  coming  after  your  grandmother,  as  I 
said  to  a  friend,  if  you  don't  do  better  than  your  grandmother!  So  I 
shall  still  hope  to  come  to  these  States  again.  Six  years  ago  I  thought 
that  was  impossible  but  when  I  was  elected  to  this  position  I  had  to  put 
it  into  my  program,  and  though  I  dreaded  the  great  and  wide  sea  where- 
in are  things  creeping  innumerable  and  whereon  there  are  exploits  phy- 
sical, exploits  accomplished  by  individuals  like  myself,  that  fill  them 
with  terror  and  alarm,  thouuli  I  dreaded  it  I  have  come  across  it,  and  I 
have  found  in  this  opportunity   lor  service  of  the  Christ  whom  I  love 


72  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

an  exceeding  great  reward.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  friends,  and  return 
into  your  own  souls  abundantly  all  the  good  you  have  striven  to  do 
to  me. 

The  audience  joined  in  singing,  ''There  is  a  Land  that  is  Fairer  than 
Day." 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Prestridge  the  following  were  appointed  a  commit- 
tee to  draw  up  a  resolution  of  congratulation  to  the  King  and  Queen  of 
England  on  the  occasion  of  their  Coronation.     (See  page  xvi.) 

Rev.  Clans  Peters,  of  Germany,  then  delivered  the  following  address: 


THE    SUFFICIENCY    OF    THE    GOSPEL    FOR    THE    SALVATION 
OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

By   Rev.   CLAUS   PETERS,   Hamburg,    Germany. 

Our  subject  is  a  genuine  biblical  one.  It  covers  the  word  of  Paul  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  (1:  16):  The  gospel  *'is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  and  also  to  the 
^Greek. ' '  Paul  was  a  man  of  the  gospel,  the  principles  of  which  he  ex- 
plains with  marvelous  force  of  thinking  in  his  epistles.  With  the  gospel 
in  his  hand  he  conquered  the  world,  and  he  saw  its  effects  not  only  in 
the  popular  preaching  but  also  in  pastoral  care.  He  proclaimed  as  the 
sum  of  his  experience  that  the  gospel  is  a  divine  power  to  save  men 
from  moral  corruption.  It  is  the  power  of  a  sublime  person,  therefore 
it  does  not  work  in  a  magical  manner  as  the  sacraments  of  some  great 
churches  are  supposed  to  do. 

In  the  first  place  we  ask : 

I.  What  is  the  gospel  which  Jesus  and  his  disciples  preached  with 
great  power  and  simplicity? 

The  gospel  is  not  a  dogmatical  book,  Avritten  by  learned  men  contain- 
ing ideas  of  the  New  Testament  and  philosophical  views  of  the  Greeks, 
which  we  have  to  believe  as  the  priests  must  believe  in  the  dogmas  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  gospel  is  much  simpler.  What  is  the  gospel?  Liberal  theolo- 
gians tell  us  it  consists  of  the  thoughts  which  Jesus  and  His  disciples 
preached  with  great  force  and  success.  To  these  belong  especially  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  advent  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  They  assert 
that  the  gospel  has  been  chiefly  a  message  to  the  poor  and  the  wretched, 
to  whom  Jesus  announced  a  glorious  deliverance  from  all  religious  and 
social  evils.  To  proclaim  the  gosjDel  to-day  it  is  only  necessary  to  repeat 
these  thoughts. 

And  yet  the  gospel  is  much  more  than  that.  This  Paul  and  his  con- 
temporaries understood,  as  Ave  know  by  their  mission-preaching  and  the 
Epistles  of  the  New  Testament.  They  believed  the  gospel  to  be  tidings 
of  deliverance  from  the  last  judgment.  It  was  to  them  the  final  redemp- 
tion from  the  terrors  of  sin  and  the  removing  of  the  believers  to  the 
heavenly  kingdom  (2  Peter  1:  11).  Therefore,  Paul  calls  the  gospel 
"logos  soterias, "  ''word  of  deliverance."  In  other  passages  of  the 
New  Testament  it  is  simply  called  "word  of  God"  (2  Cor.  2:  17;  1  Thess. 


Tuesdiiy,  .luiic  lid.  I  liFA'OliU   OF  mOL'KKDI SCH.  73 

2:  13;  2  Thess.  3:1)  i.  e.,  a  statement  by  God  in  reference  to  the  salva- 
tion of  lost  humanity. 

The  renowned  Professor  Adolf  Harnack  in  Berlin  is  known  to  have 
asserted  that  Jesus  Himself  does  not  beloiij;  to  the  gospel.  This  asser- 
tion is  not  correct  in  relation  to  the  New  Testament.  It  proves  for  this 
reason,  how  necessary  it  is  to  be  spiritually  independent  of  the  most 
celebrated  theologians.  An  independent  tiiinker  who  is  a  Christian  with 
all  his  heart  will  certainly  come  to  the  conviction  that  Jesus  Christ 
stands  in  the  center  of  the  gospel.  Without  Him  there  is  no  gospel  and 
no  redemption.  In  reference  to  this  fact  we  can  understand  the  saying 
of  St.  Paul:  ''For  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  j'ou,  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified"  (1  Cor.  2:  2). 

This  our  conviction  is  very  valuable  in  the  theological  struggles  of 
our  time.  It  may  become,  when  we  express  it  in  words,  a  kind  of  con- 
fession of  faith,  which  defines  our  position  in  respect  to  the  liberal  the- 
ology. Some  people  thought  that  men  of  gTeater  scientific  endorsement 
might  easily  be  borne  away  by  the  waves  of  theological  liberalism.  But 
this  fear  is  unnecessan'  as  long  as  their  position  in  regard  to  Christ  is 
the  right  one.  And  it  may  very  well  be  the  right  one,  even  if  they  take 
a  critical  position  in  reference  to  many  dogmas  of  the  church,  which  are 
partly  known  to  have  developed  under  the  influence  of  the  Greek  phil- 
osophy and  the  scholastical  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages.  This  is  a  good 
Baptistic  view,  for  it  agrees  with  our  opposition  to  some  teachings  of  the 
church,  Jor  example,  the  doctrine  respecting  the  sacraments.  If  our  rela- 
tion to  Christ  is  correct,  then  there  are  sharp  boundary  lines  between 
liberal  and  orthodox  theology.  Liberal  theologians  will  follow  Harnack, 
but  orthodox  ones  follow  Paul  and  testify  that  Christ  remains  in  the 
center  of  the  gospel.  The  experience  of  the  living  Lord  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  great  historical  facts  in  the  life  of  Christ  hold  them  in  this  posi- 
tion, even  if  they  are  sun-ounded  by  the  waves  of  theological  doubt.  The 
NeAv  Testament  agrees  with  them.  For  Jesus  preached  the  gospel  not 
without  his  person.  Because  He  broke  the  power  of  the  devil,  He  con- 
cluded the  kingdom  of  God  had  come  (Matt.  12:  28).  Thus  there  is  no 
kingdom  of  God  and  no  gospel  without  His  person.  He  expresses  the 
same  truth  b}'  His  claim  to  be  the  Messiah,  who  was  destined  to  bring 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Also  the  apostles  confess  in  their  writings  and  in 
their  mission-preaching  Jesus  to  be  the  contents  of  the  gospel.  All 
their  thoughts  concentrate  about  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  whom  they 
all  recognize  as  ''the  Lord  from  heaven."  In  such  a  degree  Jesus  is  to 
them  the  center  of  the  gospel  that  the  faithful  witnesses  of  truth  in 
Antioch  are  said  to  have  preached  "the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus"  (Acts 
11:  20). 

Thus  we  can  conclude :  the  gospel  is  the  glad  tidings  of  a  living  Sa- 
viour, who  delivers  sinners  from  guilt  and  corruption.  In  this  way  Paul 
understood  the  gospel,  for  he  confessed  when  the  shadows  of  night  fell 
upon  the  lonesome  man:  "This  is  a  faithful  saying  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  ot 
whom  I  am  chief"  (I  Tim.  1:  15). 

But  if  the  gospel  is  the  message  of  a  living  Saviour,  who  is  Lord  of 
all  worlds  and  who  cleared  by  His  atoning  blood  the  way  for  communion 
with  God,  then  we  can  also  say:  the  gospel  is  the  message  regarding 
facts  about  salvation,  connected  indissolubly  with  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


74  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Kespecting  these  expositions  Avhich  agree  with  the  Scriptures  I  shall 
now  mention  some  truths,  which  are  without  doubt  part  of  our  creed : 

1.  There  is  no  gospel  without  Jesus  Christ. 

This  principle  too  is  a  sharp  boundary-line  between  liberal  and  ortho- 
dox theology.  People  who  reckon  the  deity  of  Christ  to  the  gospel  can- 
not be  liberal. 

Moreover,  it  is  very  remarkable  that  the  most  radical  theologians  of 
our  time  confirm  the  belief  of  the  apostolical  Christians  in  the  godhead 
of  our  Saviour.  The  late  Professor  Paul  Wrede  in  Breslau  came  to  the 
candid  confession  that  ''our  Mark  does  not  give  the  so-called  historical 
Christ,  that  it  (the  gospel  of  Mark)  too  is  infected  by  the  phantom-like 
Godman,  whom  the  Paulinian  mission-preaching  announces."  The  pro- 
fessor concedes  thus  that  our  Gospels  and  Paul  speak  of  the  Godman 
Jesus  Christ.  As  we  consider  the  Gospels  trustworthy  historical  docu- 
ments, therefore  we  believe  in  the  deity  of  Christ.  It  belongs  to  the  rock 
of  salvation  on  which  we  stand.  With  this  creed  our  denomination  has 
gained  the  most  glorious  victories ;  therefore  we  must  not  surrender  it, 
if  we  are  not  inclined  to  renounce  our  existence. 

2.  The  gospel  is  eternal  (Rev.  14:  6),  and  therefore  unchangeable.  In 
a  limited  sense  there  may  be  a  kind  of  evolution  of  religion  but  there 
will  never  be  a  development  of  the  gospel.  For  the  gospel  deals  with 
the  great  facts  of  salvation,  which  once  for  all  God  sunk  as  historical 
events  into  the  soil  of  humanity.  But  these  facts  are  as  unchangeable 
as  the  rocks  in  the  mountains.  That  Baptists  must  never  forget  in  a 
time  which  strongly  influences  ourselves  by  its  strong  theological  life. 
Back  to  the  simple  gospel  of  Jesus  and  His  disciples !  That  must  be  the 
watchword  in  the  theological  struggles  of  the  present  time.  This  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  will  be  to  us  a  solid  wall  against  the  scepticism  which  leads 
even  to  the  denial  of  the  historical  Christ. 

The  gospel  is  the  glad  message  about  the  facts  of  salvation,  which  are 
connected  indissolubly  with  the  historical  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 

II.  This  glorious  gospel  is  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

That  is  the  assertion  of  our  subject,  this  also  the  Scriptures  teach. 
Why  is  this  the  case?  Paul  says,  because  it  comes  from  God  (''gospel  of 
God"  1  Thess  2:  2)  and  thence  it  is  a  "power  of  God"  to  save  men. 

The  gospel  is  the  mightiest'  spiritual  power  which  ever  worked  amongst 
the  nations.  Paul  saw  this  in  a  limited  way,  but  we  see  much  more  of 
its  effects  from  the  watch-tower  of  the  twentieth  century.  For  this  rea- 
son we  need  not  fear  that  the  gospel  grows  old  in  a  world  rich  in  the 
wonders  of  modern  culture.  That  will  never  happen.  So  long_  as  there 
are  people  religiously  disposed,  the  gospel  will  maintain  its  influence. 
This  fact  cannot  be  changed  by  the  power  of  modern  unbelief,  which 
denies  every  religion. 

The  gospel  is  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  sinners.    Why? 

1.  Because  it  is  a  power  of  God,  which  works  strongly  on  the  soul- 
life  of  the  individual.  This  takes  place  in  accordance  with  the  psycho- 
logical laws.  By  this  influence  the  ethical  forces  are  set  free,  which 
lie  dormant  in  fallen  men.  The  Acts  tells  us  of  the  effects  of  the  gos- 
pel upon  our  hearts.  When,  for  example,  Peter  preached  in  the  house 
of  Cornelius  the  heathen  present  were  so  deeply  moved  that  they  praised 
God  with  new  tongues  for  the  salvation  in  Christ  (Acts  10:  46).  Even 
the  most  modest  Baptist  preacher  is  able  to  tell  of  similar  effects  of  the 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  I'ROVL'EDLWii.  75 

gospel.  In  the  demeanoi-  of  the  auditors  we  recognized  its  spiritual 
power,  whicli  conquered  their  hearts. 

The  gospel  strongly  influences  the  soul-lile  of  men.  This  influence  ex- 
tends to  the  most  different  conditions  of  mind.  It  influences  with  the 
same  power  a  man  like  Paul,  who  was  totally  ruled  by  Pharisaical  self- 
righteousness,  and  also  Luther,  who — a  poor  scared  lad — suffered  deeply 
by  the  claims  of  the  divine  law  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Bun- 
yan  was  a  man  in  whom  the  world  and  religion  wrestled  for  dominion. 
The  gospel  at  last  secured  the  victory  of  religious  feeling  over  worldly 
sentiment.  What  these  men  became  for  their  contemporaries  and  what 
blessings  they  received  for  themselves,  they  are  indebted  for  to  the  gos- 
pel. Oh,  that  the  modern  world  were  opened  to  the  influences  of  the 
gospel !  If  that  were  the  case,  I  believe,  we  should  soon  live  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  millennium.  Through  this  influence  upon  the  hearts  of 
men  the  gospel  brings  sinners  to  the  reception  of  salvation.  Already  our 
Lord  and  His  disciples  experienced  that  the  simple  preaching  of  the 
gospel  effectuated  ''repentance"  (change  of  mind).  In  the  Acts  we 
read  (11:  IS)  that  through  the  gospel  'Ho  the  Gentiles,  was  granted  re- 
pentance unto  life." 

Also  the  faith  is. the  fruit  of  the  gospel.  When  in  Antioch  simple 
children  of  God  proclaimed  the  divine  word,  "the  hand  of  the  Lord  was 
with  them  and  a  great  number  believed  and  turned  to  the  Lord"  (Acts 
11:  21).  The  gospel  wakens  belief  by  creating  a  disposition  to  believe, 
by  which  man  is  able  to  receive  Christ  and  His  salvation.  Therefore, 
Paul  writes :  "So  tlien  faith  cometh  by  hearing  and  hearing  by  the 
word  of  God"  (Rom.  10:  17).  The  simple  preaching  disposes  men  to 
belief,  and  induces  them  to  be  willing  to  receive  salvation.  For  this  rea- 
son Paul  by  many  experiences  can  say :  the  gospel  saves. 

2.  The  gospel  is  sufficient  to  save  humanity,  since  it  creates  new 
men.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  following  words:  "Born  again,  not  of 
corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  by  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth 
and  abideth  forever,"  and  "of  his  own  will  he  bee:at  us  with  the  word  of 
truth"  (1  Peter  1:  23;  James  1:  18). 

This  result,  the  creation  of  a  new  man,  is  caused  by  the  influence  of 
the  gospel  upon  the  human  heart,  which  clears  the  way  for  the  influence 
of  the  Almighty  upon  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  gospel  creates  new  men,  who  are  in  the  right  position  towards 
God.  On  the  basis  ol'  the  facts  of  salvation  it  leads  to  the  holy  com- 
munion with  God.  From  that  time  we  live  in  the  blessed  fulfilment  of 
our  duties  to  God.  Besides  this  the  glad  tidings  bring  us  into  correct 
relationship  to  our  fellow-men.  While  we  Avere  in  earlier  times  gov- 
erned by  great  selfishness,  we  now  being  children  of  God  perform  the 
works  of  merciful  love  to  our  neighbors.  We  sympathize  with  every 
movement  for  common  welfare.  We  are  happy  when  absolutism  is  over- 
thrown and  righteousness  is  enthroned  and  nations  live  in  peace.  Who- 
ever is  touched  by  tlie  spirit  of  the  gospel  must  be  a  friend  of  peace, 
and  he  will  abhor  a  warlike  spirit. 

By  the  gospel  we  gain  also  the  right  position  toward'^  the  temporal 
goods  to  which  we  also  reckon  our  spiritual  endowment.  We  do  not  over- 
estimate them,  for  the  genuine  success  of  human  life  is  not  dependent 
on  the  circumstances  which  surj-ound  us  in  our  daily  life  and  which  lose 
their  value  in  death.     But  neither  do  we  under-rate  them,  because  we 


76  '         THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

use  them  as  faithful  stewards  of  our  Lord  for  the  building  up  of  the 
kingdom. 

Therefore  we  assert :  the  gospel  creates  new  men,  for  it  changes  our 
position  to  God,  to  our  fellow-men  and  to  earthly  things.  It  grants  us 
freedom  in  ethical  matters,  so  that  we  can  live  as  happy  children  of  our 
Father  in  heaven. 

By  these  effects  it  surpasses  all  other  non-Christian  religions,  which 
cannot  deliver  from  the  pernicious  ban  of  this  Avorld  and  whicli  for  this 
reason  do  not  satisfy  the  longing  of  the  human  heart.  Tn  spite  of  its 
spiritual  power  Buddhism,  for  example,  has  not  brought  about  the  new 
birth  of  the  Indian  people,  for  which  now  the  gospel  works  with  great 
success. 

3.  Further,  the  gospel  is  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  mankind, 
because  it  breaks  the  power  of  sin.  Paul,  the  great  missionary,  has  ex- 
perienced this.  Therefore,  Christianity  is  the  great  religion  of  redemp- 
tion, which  cannot  be  compared  with  any  pagan  religion  of  which  none 
save  from  the  ban  of  sin.  Therefore  it  is  henceforth  our  duty  to  send 
missionai'ies  to  heathen  countries,  to  preach  the  gospel. 

We  Baptists  believe  in  the  dreadfulness  of  sin.  Sin  is  not  only  a  devi- 
ation from  the  right  way,  but  also  rebellion  against  God,  for,  it  is  ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures  ''anomia" — lawlessness,  transgression 
of  the  divine  law.  We  shall  Aveaken  our  si^iritual  strength,  if  we 
do  not,  like  our  ancestors,  emphasize  the  destroying  power  of  sin  and 
the  responsibility  for  our  own  guilt.  The  danger  to  neglect  this  is  very 
near  in  our  time.  But  to-day  we  will  resolve  to  preach  with  greater  force 
the  dear  old  gospel,  because  it  saves  from  the  bondage  of  sin.  Paul,  the 
man  with  a  strong  moral  feeling,  who  in  spite  of  this  was  fettered  by  the 
chains  of  sin,  describes  to  us  not  only  the  hopeless  battle  of  men  against 
sin,  but  also  their  deliverance  from  the  power  of  sin  by  the  glorious 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  himself  attests  how  he  came  from  the  dark 
depths  of  sin  and  guilt  to  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  The 
power  of  sin  is  broken  in  the  life  of  men  in  such  a  degree  that  the 
apostle  exhorts  the  Romans  not  to  allow  sin  to  reign  in  their  mortal 
bodies.  This  is  sanctification,  which  consists  in  separation  from  sin. 
Paul  believes  in  a  sanctification  through  the  gospel  or  through  the  liv- 
ing Christ  who  stands  in  the  center  of  the  gospel.  For  this  reason  he 
announces  to  the  Corinthians,  amongst  whom  much  unholy  conduct  ex- 
isted:  ''Jesus  Christ  is  made  unto  us  righteousness  and  sanctification" 
(1  Cor.  1:  30).  Thus  we  may  say:  the  gospel  awakens  and  strengthens 
in  believers  the  ethical  forces,  leads  to  victory  over  sin  and  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  holy  character,  by  which  they  will  resemble  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  the  life  of  the  Christians  in  holiness  whicli  we  will  gladly  preach 
a  glorious  redemption  by  Christ. 

4.  Finally  the  gospel  suffices  for  the  salvation  of  men,  because  it 
delivers  from  the  eternal  consequences  of  sin.  So  Jesus  has  taught.  He 
directs  Nicodemus  to  his  own  person,  whom  he  describes  as  a  gift  of  the 
love  of  God.  Then  he  adds :  ' '  That  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life"  (John  3:  16).  Jesus  believes  in 
the  possibility  that  sinners  may  perish.  How  earnestly  He  pronounces 
this  with  the  words:  "But  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be  damned" 
(Mark  16:  16).  He  points  to  the  verdict  of  judgment  from  His  own 
mouth,  by  which  impenitent  sinners  are  to  be  delivered  to  the  judgment 
of  hell.    Thus  Jesus  believes  in  a  hell  and  in  a  salvation  from  it.    We  are 


Tuesday,  Juno  20. 1  h'KCORD  OF  I'ROCEEDl'NOS.  77 

one  witli  Him  in  this  belief,  therefore  we  will  gladly  proclaim,  this  gos- 
pel which  saves  inlallibly  from  eternal  death  and  hell.  Jesus  confesses: 
"For  the  sou  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost" 
(Luke  19:  10).  Jesus  saves,  the  gospel  saves  Irom  eternal  destruction. 
Millions  of  Christians  have  experienced  this  in  a  blessed,  victorious 
death.     That  is  a  divine  fact,  that  is  the  gospel! 

The  gospel  is  suflicient  for  the  salvation  of  the  individual.  The  New 
Testament  teaches  this  elevating  truth  and  a  thousand-fold  experience 
confirms  it  most  brilliantly.  Every  Christian  who  saw  with  Paul  a  day 
of  Damascus,  has  made  this  experience.  Great  revivals  of  the  last  cen- 
tury confirm  the  saving  power  of  the  gospel.  Also  in  our  days  we  experi- 
ence the  same  fact  in  the  new  birth  of  pagan  peoples  by  the  simple 
preaching  of  the  gospel.  Therefore  we  can  apply  to  the  gospel  the  word 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  is  originally  said  in  reference  to 
our  Lord:  "Wherefore  he  is  able  also  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that 
come  unto  God  by  him"  (Hebrews  7:  25).  The  gospel  saves  "to  the  ut- 
termost," under  all  circumstances,  it  never  fails.  Even  the  i^rodigal  son 
who  a  thousand  times  trampled  the  love  of  God  under  foot  is  able  to 
enter  by  the  saving  power  of  the  gospel  the  lofty  halls  of  the  fatherly 
home  and  to  enjoy  without  care  its  love  and  peace.  Paul  saw  this  very 
often  during  a  long  missionary  life.  He  confesses  that  the  gospel  proves 
to  be  in  the  pagan  and  Jewish  world  a  power  of  God.  The  victories  of 
the  gospel  he  has  seen,  though  Jesus  Avith  the  appearance  of  piety,  lived 
in  the  bondage  of  sin,  and  the  Gentiles  perished  by  the  most  dreadful 
vices.  The  gospel  proved  to  be  much  stronger  than  corruption  by  sin. 
"But  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound"  (Rora.  5:  20). 

Before  we  conclude  our  considerations  about  the  saving  power  of  the 
gospel,  let  us  emphasize  that  the  gospel  is  the  only  means  for  the  sal- 
vation of  mankind.  This  the  disciples  experienced,  for  they  preached: 
"Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other;  for  there  is  none  other  name 
under  heaven  given  among  men,  wherebj^  we  must  be  saved"  (Acts  4: 
12).  We  know  that  Christians  formerly  met  with  fierce  opposition  to 
this  claim,  and  they  meet  the  same  opposition  to-daj',  when  people  assert 
with  great  pathos  the  equal  value  of  all  religions  and  endeavor  to  limit 
the  propagation  of  the  Christian  religion.  On  the  contrary,  we  are 
convinced  of  the  lesser  value  of  the  pagan  religions  compared  with 
Christianity.  We  believe :  only  the  gospel  saves,  not  a  shining  worship, 
not  a  religious  service  in  pious  works,  but  only  the  gospel  is  a  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  everyone  that  believeth.  We  therefore  gladly 
place  ourselves  on  the  Paulinian  creed:  "For  other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay  than  that  is  laid  which  is  Jesus  Christ"  (1  Cor.  3:  11).  Since 
the  living  Christ  is  identical  with  tlie  gospel,  as  we  have  seen,  thus  the 
gospel  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  foundation  of  our  eternal  salvation 
and  therefore  the  best  confession  of  faith  for  our  denomination.  It  en- 
joys one  great  advantage  in  respect  to  other  philos()]ihical  creeds,  it  is 
very  simple  and  devised  by  Christ  Himself.  We  believe,  therefore,  it  is 
qualified  to  be  a  strong  tie  for  our  denomination  which  protects  us  from 
division  in  a  time,  when  the  spiritual  life  of  the  whole  world  influences 
the  individual  in  a  force  not  before  thought  of.  Our  glorious  history 
has  proved  the  simple  gospel  to  be  such  a  strong  tie  which  united  our 
denomination  as  a  body  which  defied  the  storms  of  time.  Therefore  we 
will  remain  on  the  ground  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  until  we  are  transferred 
from  the  fighting  into  the  triumphing  church. 


78  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAl^'CE. 

The  gospel  saves  lost  humanity.  In  its  preaching  Paul  recognized  the 
calling  of  his  life.  He  performed  this  task  with  great  faithfulness  as 
we  know  by  the  word  1  Cor.  9 :  16 :  ''For  though  I  preach  the  gospel  I 
have  nothing  to  glory  of;  for  necessity  is  laid  upon  me,  yea,  woe  is  unto 
me,  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel."  The  Lord  has  also  chosen  us  to  preach 
the  gospel.  How  are  we  to  do  that?  This  question  leads  us  to  the  con- 
clusion of  our  considerations. 

III.     How  are  we  to  preach  the  gospel? 

1.  We  must  preach  with  great  clearness  and  force  the  fundamental 
truths  of  the  gospel.  This  Paul  did  with  marvelous  exclusiveness  and 
great  success.  Certainly  circumstances  have  much  changed  in  the 
course  of  time.  The  education  of  the  people  is  much  increased.  A  re- 
markable spiritual  development  has  carried  the  nations  to  the  height  of 
modern  culture.  Therefore,  people  of  to-day  distinguish  themselves  in 
many  things  from  the  Greeks  and  Romans  to  whom  Paul  preached  ''his" 
gospel,  which  included  the  salvation  all  of  grace  and  excluded  salvation 
by  works.  In  spite  of  all  this  the  religious  needs  have  remained  the 
same  during  the  centuries.  The  human  heart  cries  as  before  for  atone- 
ment of  guilt  and  redemption  fi'om  the  power  of  sin  and  communion  with 
God.  All  these  goods  the  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man  has  brought, 
therefore  it  is  chiefly  our  duty  to  preach  Him  and  His  great  redemption. 
This  w^e  can  do  by  mission-preaching,  which  Jesus  and  His  disciples 
began.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  neglected  gospel-preaching;  the 
priests  proclaimed  its  dogmas  and  trained  the  people  for  an  imposing 
worship.  Hence  its  spiritual  deadness.  The  reformers,  on  the  con- 
trary, made  Christ  again  the  center  of  their  preaching,  especially  the 
deep-minded  Luther.  By  this  preaching  they  turned  the  world  upside 
down.  To-day  the  missionaries  do  the  same  in  heathen  countries.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  converts  are  gained  for  Christianity  by  their 
work,  surely  an  evidence  that  the  gospel  answers  the  needs  of  the  peoples 
living  in  a  state  of  nature.  But  such  preaching  should  not  be  perform- 
ed in  a  spiritless  manner  in  our  spiritually  awakened  time.  Alas !  this 
is  very  often  the  case.  We  have  heard  many  so-called  evangelical  ser- 
mons, which  consisted  in  an  accumulation  of  religious  phrases  about 
Christ  and  His  work.  With  Paul  it  was  another  thing.  In  a  youthful 
manner  and  with  great  freshness  he  used  to  place  evangelical  truths  be- 
fore his  hearers.  Why  was  he  able  to  do  so?  Because  he  was  a  great 
student  and  because  he  himself  experienced  the  gospel  anew.  By  deep 
thinking  he  laid  hold  upon  its  truths,  as  we  recognize  by  his  writings, 
which  show  mighty  work  of  thought.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  the 
thoughts  of  Paul  always  center  in  Christ  and  his  redemption.  This  is 
the  wonderful  feature  in  all  his  writings.  Paul  lived  in  and  thought 
about  the  gospel.  Therefore  he — a  man  who  was  probably  not  a  great 
orator — was  able  to  preach  the  gospel  ever  again  with  great  force  and 
freshness.  The  greatest  and  deepest  thinker  like  Paul  may  for  this 
reason  confidently  preach  the  simple  gospel.  This  even  is  his  duty,  and 
if  he  performs  it,  he  will  work  with  good  success.  With  this  we  do  not 
exclude  dogmatical  preaching.  Likewise  it  is  sometimes  allowed  to 
preach  about  truths  which  lie  on  the  periphery  of  Christian  life.  But 
evangelical  preaching  is  never  to  be  compensated  by  any  other,  even 
not  by  the  eschatological. 

From  these  statements  it  follows  that  the  gospel,  deep  thinking  and 
scientific  investigation  do  by  no  means  exclude  each  other;  on  the  con- 


Tuesday,  . I  line  JO.  J  RKCOIiD  OF  PROCEEDiyGH.  79 

trary,  they  demand  each  other.  We  build  liii^h  .schools,  universities  and 
seminaries;  we  work  with  great  zeal  in  our  studies;  we  will  continue  to 
do  so,  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  all  the  better. 

2.  •  Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  to  bring  the  gospel  to  tiie  indi- 
vidual. Our  subject  is:  the  sulliciency  of  the  gospel  for  the  salvation  of 
the  individual.  This  the  church  has  forgotten  very  often,  because  she 
aimed  at  the  conversion  of  whole  nations.  The  inhabitants  of  Kiew 
(about  1000  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ)  once  received  the  order  to 
assemble  on  tiie  banks  of  the  Kivor  Dniei)er  for  the  reception  of  baptism. 
WhileVladimir,  the  sovereign  of  Kussia,  was  lying  in  prayer  on  the  bank 
of  the  river  his  divines  baptized  the  people  in  the  river.  Notwithstanding 
we  know  that  still  to  this  day  Russia  lies  in  the  slumber  of  a  spiritual 
death.  We  Baptists  will  always  remember  that  we  obtain  the  Christian- 
izing of  a  people  only  by  the  conversion  of  single  persons.  In  the  fii'st 
line  only  individuals  are  the  objects  of  grace.  Surely  I  wish  that  many 
Baptist  preachers  may  become  like  Berthold  of  Regensburg  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  He  is  said  to  have  preached  sometimes  to  one  hundred  thou- 
sand people.  Yet  the  personal  work  on  men  remains  the  most  effectual 
method  to  bring  the  world  to  Christ.  Jesus  and  Paul  employed  it  in  their 
work.  Also  the  great  missionary,  Adoniram  Judson.  Of  him  it  is  said : 
His  preaching  "at  first  was  to  the  individual.  It  was  a  process  of  spir- 
itual button-holing.  A  single  person  would  enter  into  discussion  with 
the  missionary,  while  a  few  others  would  draw  near  to  witness  the  en- 
counter. It  was  in  these  hand-to-hand  frays  that  Mr.  Judson  often 
extorted  exclamations  of  admiration  from  by-standers,  as  with  his  keen 
logic  he  hewed  his  opponent  to  pieces  as  Samuel  did  Agag. "  Such  in- 
dividual work  we  also  need  in  our  days,  because  it  is  crowned  much 
more  with  success  than  mass-meetings  which  fascinate  preacher  and 
hearers.  Of  course,  for  the  performance  of  this  method  participation 
of  all  our  members  is  necessary.  But  just  this  is  a  great  advantage,  be- 
cause work  on  the  souls  of  men  contributes  much  to  the  upbuilding  of 
a  true  Christian  character. 

3.  Still  one  thing  more  is  to  be  observed.  It  is  our  duty  in  preaching 
the  gospel  always  to  aim  at  the  belief  in  the  great  facts  of  salvation,  for 
the  gospel  is  a  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  belie veth. 
To  awaken  belief  is  the  high  mark  at  which  the  apostolical  Christians 
aimed.  The  Acts  tells  us,  what  success  they  had  in  this  endeavor.  May 
we  become  like  the  apostles ! 

How  do  we  bring  the  world  to  believe?  Every  belief  depends  on  the 
spiritual  power  which  a  person  exerts.  If  we  really  experience  it.  we 
"believe"  in  this  person,  we  trust  him  and  we  submit  to  his  authority. 
In  this  manner  we  came  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  feel  the  spiritual 
power  of  His  personage  in  His  words  and  deeds  and  character  which 
the  influence  of  the  noblest  men  far  surpasses,  who  have  ever  influenced 
us.  We  experience  His  authority  like  the  disciples  and  Paul.  There- 
fore we  are  obliged  to  believe  in  Him  and  to  be  obedient  to  Him. 

To  bring  men  to  this  conquering  influence  of  Christ  we  must  describe 
Christ  and  His  work  with  such  a  clearness  and  enthusiasm  that  we  may 
"paint"  Him  before  the  eyes  of  our  hearer  (Gal.  3:1).  We  are  able  to 
do  this,  if  we  preach  the  historical  Christ  of  the  four  Gospels  and  show 
by  the  Epistles  what  the  living  Christ  once  was  to  the  Christians  of  the 
apostolical  times.  And  this  Christ  will  surely  find  faith  on  earth  to-day. 
The  development  of  our  denomination  demonstrates  this  fact. 


80  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

4.  Finally,  we  must  preach  the  gospel  in  the  right  disposition  of  mind. 
In  this  the  apostles  are  also  a  fine  example.  Their  preaching  was  charac- 
terized by  an  amazing  enthusiasm  and  conviction,  and  thus  it  inflamed 
human  hearts.  How  do  we  succeed  in  preaching  Christ  with  the  'same 
originality,  force  of  conviction,  and  enthusiasm?  We  must,  like  the 
apostles,  experience  Christ  our  living  Saviour.  Our  modern  Christian 
world  is  right  in  choosing  this  for  their  watchword.  Damascus  must 
be  also  our  experience,  before  we  are  able  to  be  engaged  with  Paul  in  a 
similar  work.  But  this  event  may  happen  in  a  less  dramatical  manner. 
We  see  the  glorified  picture  of  Christ  as  it  is  shown  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, by  our  spiritual  eyes,  we  hear  His  loving  words  which  we  apply  to 
our  own  life,  finally  we  are  thrown  upon  our  knees  to  adore  Him  our 
heavenly  Lord,  and  with  Paul  we  ask:  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me 
to  do?"  Thus  we  feel  like  the  great  apostle  the  presence  of  our  Sa- 
viour, who  forthwith  influences  us.  So  Christ  becomes  the  greatest  re- 
ality in  our  life,  He  is  found  in  us  (Gal.  4:  19)  and  lives  in  us  (Gal.  2: 
20).  We  enter  with  Him  a  real  mystical  union,  which  once  the  Greeks 
sought  in  vain  with  their  gods  and  which  only  can  satisfy  the  deep 
craving  of  the  human  heart  for  God.  If  we  experience  all  this  with 
reality  and  clearness  as  Paul  did  then  we  are  able  to  preach  the  gospel 
with  the  authority  of  this  apostle.  This  concerns  not  only  the  great  men 
in  our  denomination,  but  also  the  less  endowed  Christians  whose  life  is 
Jesus  Christ  (Phil.  1:  21).  We  know  that  there  is  in  our  times  no  want 
of  such  spiritually  minded  children  of  God,  whose  life  is  hid  in  Christ 
with  God.  Paul  would  call  them  "phasteres"— light-bearers  (Phil.  2: 
15),  Avho  send  their  bright  beams  into  the  darkness  of  this  world.  This 
fact  fills  us  with  joyful  hope,  thinking  about  the  issues  of  the  spiritual 
conflicts  of  the  present  time.    God  leads  His  people  to  victory. 

Many  great  men  of  all  times  belong  to  these  people,  who  preach  the 
gospel  with  apostolic  faith  and  impressiveness.  We  remind  you  of  Lu- 
ther, Calvin,  Spurgeon,  Moody,  and  others,  who  have  seen  the  most 
glorious  victories  of  the  gospel,  which  we  do  not  attribute  exclusively  to 
their  great  spiritual  ability.  They  conquered  only,  because  they  brought 
the  unadulterated  gospel  to  the  people.  When  Roman  Catholicism  was 
on  a  fast  triumphal  march,  simple  monks,  the  so-called  Kuldees,  came 
from  Ireland  and  England  to  Germany.  They  were  filled  by  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel.  Men  like  the  holy  Columbanus,  who  in  589  left  the  fa- 
mous monastery  of  Bangor,  Ireland,  Gallus,  Trudpert,  Wilfrid  and  Wil- 
librord  proclaimed  in  many  districts  of  my  country  to  our  pagan  an- 
cestors the  simple  gospel,  not  yet  corrupted  by  the  Roman  Catholic  the- 
ology. These  messengers  of  God  saw  many  glorious  victories  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  perhaps  it  was  their  evangelical  preaching  which  prepared 
the  German  people  for  the  great  period  of  reformation.  In  the  spirit  of 
these  men  we  will — this  shall  be  our  vow  in  this  hour — preach  the  old 
gospel,  the  contents  of  which  is  the  living  Christ  and  His  atoning  blood. 
We  are  entitled  to  perform  this  work  according  to  somewhat  changed 
methods  and  with  other  applications  to  the  life  of  men.  Notwithstand- 
ing we  must  remain  on  the  rock  of  the  gospel  which  is  offered  to  us  in 
original  form  by  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  is  fully  sufficient  for  the  sal- 
vation of  men. 

To  be  sure  we  live  under  very  difficult  conditions  of  time.  Our  world 
is  not  as  much  disposed  for  religion  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were, 
amongst  whom  Paul  worked.    He  preached  in  a  time  when  religion  was  in 


PROF.   SHAILER   MATHEWS. 


Tuesday,  June  20.1  RECOh'D  OF  PROCKKDlSCii.  81 

full  dissolution  and  the  common  people  at  least  cried  for  a  new  relig- 
ious hold.  Conditions  are  totally  changed  to-day.  Not  only  the  people 
of  rank  but  also  the  common  people  of  the  European  Continent  are  given 
up  to  infidelity.  In  spite  of  this  we  will  not  despair,  i'or  bygone  cen- 
turies make  known  that  the  gospel  is  a  medicine  to  cure  the  sore  wounds 
in  the  life  of  the  people;  it  saves  even  from  the  most  barren  unbelief. 
Therefore  let  us  resolve  to  proclaim  the  glorious  old  gospel  with  apos- 
tolical faithfulness  and  simplicity  of  heart.  This  we  will  do  in  the  joy- 
ful certainty  in  hoc  signo  vmccs,  in  this  sign  we  shall  conquer,  even  a  dis- 
believing world,  which  hates  Christ  and  is  disposed  towards  materialism 
of  the  present  time.  We  believe  in  a  glorious  victory  of  the  old  gospel, 
because  Christ  lives  and  reigns  forever  and  ever. 

"Jesus  shall  reign 
Where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run." 

After  singing  ''Jesus  Shall  Reign  Where'er  the  Sun,"  Professor 
Shailer  Mathews,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  delivered  the  following 
address : 


THE  SUFFICIENCY  OF  THE  GOSPEL  FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF 

SOCIETY. 

By  SHAILER  MATHEWS, 
Dean  of  the  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 

The  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  for  the  salvation  of  society  may  seem  to 
some  a  presupposition  rather  than  a  question,  a  matter  for  congratula- 
tion rather  than  for  discussion.  Yet  there  are  thousands  of  earnest 
Christians  who  believe  that  the  social  order  in  which  we  live  is  so  hope- 
lessly corrupt  and  Satanic  that  it  is  idle  to  imagine  its  ever  being  saved. 
In  their  view  the  work  of  the  church  consists  in  the  rescue  of  individuals 
from  a  ruined  world  and  the  patient  endurance  of  evil  until  Christ  re- 
turns to  establish  a  supernatural  kingdom.  There  is,  further,  an  in- 
creasing number  of  men  and  women  wlio  believe  that  the  social  order 
must  be  saved  by  being  transformed,  but  who  believe  that  the  gospel  is 
altogether  incapable  of  working  the  transformation.  They  look  to  the 
development  of  class  hatred  as  the  means  of  finally  bringing  about  a 
fraternal  democracy.  There  is  still  a  third  class  who  believes  neither  in 
the  second  coming  of  Christ  nor  in  socialism,  but  who  do  believe  in  the 
finality  of  success.  To  them  the  gospel  is  a  synonym  for  weakness  or  a 
clever  device  which  the  strong  have  evolved  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
the  weak  submissive. 

The  distrust  of  the  social  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  represented  by  these 
three  classes  is  not  to  be  answered  by  complacent  rhetoric.  Particularly 
is  it  incumbent  upon  Baptists  to  face  the  question  frankly.  For  the 
Baptist  churches  stand  and  fall  with  the  gospel.  Other  religious  organi- 
zations conceivably  might  sunive  Christianity  itself  as  organi- 
zations devoted  to  other  than  religious  aims,  but  the  Baptist  denomina- 


82  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

tion  will  stand  and  fall  with  the  gospel.  If  that  is  ever  seen  to  be  un- 
workable the  Baptist  denomination  will  disappear. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  remind  a  Baptist  audience  that  the  gospel  is  not 
identical  with  an  orthodox  theology.  Orthodoxy  is  the  result  of  an  ef- 
fort to  formulate  philosophically  and  authoritatively  what  an  age  be- 
lieved the  gospel  to  be.  How  far  such  results  have  been  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  New  Testament  any  student  of  church  history  knows  only 
too  well.  Orthodoxy  as  we  find  it  in  many  a  creed  comes  to  us  wet  with  the 
blood  of  our  spiritual  forefathers  and  rank  with  the  smoke  of  the  stake. 
True  Evangelicalism  is  a  message  not  of  doctrinal  precision,  but  of  life. 
The  teaching  and  life  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  reveal  that  God  is  Love, 
and  that  the  supreme  good  of  life  is  to  be  loving,  like  God.  That  is  the 
essence  of  the  gospel.  It  is  not  a  call  to  duty  or  an  exposition  of  phil- 
osophy, but  the  simple  announcement  that  God  can  be  trusted  as  a 
Father,  and  that  consequently  love  is  the  final  law  of  life.  In  a  word, 
that  the  highest  good  of  the  individual  life  is  sonship  of  God  and  of 
society,  fraternity. 

The  social  teaching  of  Jesus  is  the  extension  of  this  principle.  His 
life  of  service  and  His  death  upon  the  cross  are  the  exposition  of  the 
gospel  in  His  own  individual  life,  and  His  words  regarding  marriage  and 
wealth  are  its  application  to  the  social  order  in  the  midst  of  which  He 
lived.  Strictly  speaking,  the  gospel  as  the  gospel  has  no  specific  social 
philosophy  or  program.  Each  ag'e  must  apply  to  its  own  conditions  and 
problems,  the  formal  principle  contained  in  the  supreme  message  that 
God  is  Love,  that  sinners  can  be  forgiven,  that  men  can  trust  a  loving 
Father  for  their  daily  needs,  and  that  just  because  God  is  Love  it  is  bet- 
ter to  serve  and  sacrifice  than  to  fight  and  win. 


It  is  here  we  meet  the  three  most  profound  difficulties  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  gospel  to  social  life,  (1)  the  enmity  between  the  gospel  and 
the  economic  order,  (2)  the  emphasis  of  the  gospel  on  brotherhood 
rather  than  on  justice,  and,  (3)  the  perplexing  commentary  on  the  power 
of  the  gospel  given  by  the  history  of  the  church  itself. 

1.  The  enmity  between  the  gospel  and  economic  order  is  by  no  means 
a  modern  discovery.  All  through  the  Christian  centuries  men  have  ap- 
peared either  urging  povertj'  as  the  indispensable  prerequisite  for  holy 
lives  or,  as  in  the  case  of  some  of  the  Anabaptists,  urging  communism. 
And  long  before  them  Jesus  Himself  had  pointed  out  the  sharp  distinc- 
tion between  the  service  of  God  and  the  service  of  mammon,  and  had 
distinctly  warned  his  followers  against  anxiety  as  to  material  goods. 
But  the  antithesis  between  an  economic  order  which  makes  the  creation 
of  wealth  superior  to  human  well  being  and  a  call  to  trust  in  God  as 
loving  and  to  the  love  of  men  in  the  spirit  of  true  fraternity,  was  never 
so  manifest  as  to-day.  In  fact,  to  many  earnest  souls  it  has  become  un- 
endurable. The  crisis  of  civilization  lies  in  the  struggle  to  determine 
who  shall  control  the  surplus  of  the  economic  jDroeess.  The  real  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  is  something  more  than  the  preaching  of  an  es- 
cape from  punishment  to  come;  it  is  rather  such  a  transfusion  of  the 
forces  of  civilization  with  the  ideals  of  the  gospel  as  to  bring  justice  into 
the  economic  order.  And  that  can  never  be  accomplished  in  a  single  gen- 
eration.    Each  new  advance  in  civilization  in  heathen  lands  will  bring 


Tiu'sday.  .hull'  JO.  I  UECDliD   OF  I'HOVKEDJ .\(1S.  83 

Cliristianity  there,  as  in  Europe  and  America,  face  to  face  with  the 
vastly  more  diflicuit  problem  of  the  socialization  of  the  ideals  of  Jesus 
in  an  industrial  order.  And  the  conquests  of  the  Christ  will  not  be  com- 
plete until  he  has  conquered  the  control  of  the  economic  surplus. 

Within  the  last  few-  years  w-e  have  passed  from  the  belief  that  unre- 
stricted competition  is  a  good  and  have  entered  into  the  semi-socialistic 
stage  in  which  the  community  undertakes  to  regulate  not  only  the  finan- 
cial but  also  the  social  powers  of  great  corporations.  Yet  the  complete 
triumpli  of  the  ideals  of  the  gospel  seems  distant.  While  the  Christian 
must  welcome  every  act  of  restraint  which  embodies  even  an  approach 
to  the  ideals  of  the  gospel,  yet  the  fundamental  difference  between  su- 
preme goods  of  life  continue.  On  the  one  side  are  those  who  make  wealth 
supreme,  and  on  the  other  is  the  gospel,  making  the  good  of  humanity 
supreme.  And  the  conflict  between  these  two  ideals  must  be  fought  to  a 
finish. 

2.  The  second  objection  to  the  social  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  lies  in 
the  fact  that,  recognizing  the  legitimacy  of  this  conflict,  men  are  seek- 
ing victory  in  an  appeal  to  justice,  rather  than  to  love  or  fraternity.  If 
by  this  is  meant  they  are  seeking  to  give  justice,  their  position  would  be 
identical  with  that  of  the  gospel.  But  the  struggle  between  the  classes 
and  the  masses  to-day  does  not  consist  in  one  group's  effort  to  give 
justice;  it  is  one  in  which  one  group  is  struggling  to  get  justice.  The 
motive  of  individuals  in  such  a  struggle  may  be  thoroughly  altruistic,  but 
the  conflict  has  long  since  passed  the  individualistic  stage  and  has  be- 
come a  struggle  between  groups. 

Now  the  appeal  to  get  justice  is  an  old  appeal,  but  at  the  bottom  it  is 
not  absolutely  evangelical.  Jesus  made  this  exceedingly  clear  in  His 
teaching  as  to  non-resistance.  According  to  Him  loyalty  to  the  gospel 
was  not  an  insistence  upon  one's  own  rights,  but  a  willingness  to  sur- 
render such  individual  rights  for  the  common  good.  The  appeal  to  jus- 
tice at  first  sight  seems  far  more  powerful  than  this  call  to  surrender, 
for  it  can  utilize  an  anger  born  of  the  consciousness  of  injustice  and  the 
violation  of  one's  own  rights.  But  such  a  feeling  leads  ultimately  to 
appeal  to  force.  Every  revolution  is  a  confession  that  love  has  failed 
to  impress  men  w-ith  its  absolute  supremacy.  Where  men  have  to  fight  to 
get  a  just  share  of  privilege,  it  is  evident  that  other  men  are  fighting  not 
to  give  such  privileges. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  the  modern  struggle  between  the  classes  is  not 
in  itself  necessarily  controlled  by  the  gospel.  In  the  same  degree  as  it 
may  seem  unavoidable  is  it  an  evidence  of  the  insufTicieney  or  the  in- 
ability of  the  gospel  to  transform  men's  motives  into  those  of  love.  Many 
of  the  leaders  of  the  present  social  movement  have  altogether  abandoned 
any  confidence  in  appeals  to  altruism  and  are  deliberately  fomenting 
class  hatred  in  the  expectation  of  a  final  struggle  in  which  justice  shall 
be  gained.  It  is  time  that  the  Christian  church  face  this  situation.  It 
is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  gospel  is  at  work  when  individuals  filled 
with  the  love  of  their  kind  endeavor  to  incite  class  warfare.  Such  war- 
fare may  be  the  court  of  last  resort,  and  such  individuals  may  be  Chris- 
tians. But  war,  like  charity,  argues  the  incomplete  evangelization  of  the 
world  and  the  very  effort  to  stir  up  hatred  is  an  expression  of  distrust  in 
the  power  of  love. 

3.  The  third  ground  of  distrust  of  the  social  sutliciency  of  (he  gospel 
16  the  imperfect  evangelization  of  that  very  body  that  stands  for  the 


84  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

gospel,  the  church.  The  history  of  the  church  is  a  sad  commentary  on 
the  unwillingness  of  men  to  submit  themselves  to  the  ideals  of  the  very 
Christ  whom  they  have  declared  to  be  the  second  person  of  the  Trinity. 
Nor  need  one  think  only  of  the  persecutions  of  the  past.  There  are  too 
many  modern  churches  in  which  are  found  bickerings,  pettiness  and 
quarrelsomeness  worthy  of  the  Corinthians  themselves.  How  comes  it  to 
pass  that  the  organization  which  looks  forward  so  confidently  to  a  share 
in  the  triumph  of  the  ideals  of  Jesus  which  it  claims  to  embody,  can 
indulge  in  church  quarrels  and  magnify  the  ideas  of  rights  of  majorities 
and  minorities  over  the  spirit  of  mutual  surrender  which  is  the  real  test 
of  the  regenerate  life.  The  churches  of  many  a  modern  city  deserve  the 
rebuke  given  by  Paul  to  the  Corinthians:  ''Are  ye  not  carnal  if  ye  bite 
and  devour  one  another?" 

Unless  I  mistake,  the  gospel  is  being  put  to  the  severest  test  in  the 
house  of  its  friends.  To  churches  belong  the  large  proportion  of  the 
capitalistic  class,  that  is  those  who  have  particularly  enjoyed  the  bless- 
ings given  by  the  economic  surplus.  Rightly  or  wrongly  it  has  become 
judged  as  supporting  those  who  have  privileges  in  the  social  struggle.  I 
believe  that  there  has  been  a  remarkable  change  in  this  particular  during 
the  last  few  years,  and  it  is  not  too  late  to  rectify  the  misinterpretations 
from  which  the  church  has  suffered.  But  he  would  be  an  evil  counsellor 
who  did  not  warn  the  churches  that  the  spectacle  of  their  quarrels  over 
doctrinal  and  practical  details  on  the  one  side,  and  their  unwillingness 
to  urge  more  distinctly  upon  their  members  the  need  of  democratizing 
privilege,  will  serve  to  decrease  confidence  that  the  gospel  they  profess 
to  embody  is  sufficient  for  social  regeneration.  ''If  the  salt  has  lost  its 
savor  wherewith  is  it  to  be  salted?"  If  the  church,  the  body  of  the 
Christ  cannot  exemplify  love,  God  will  entrust  this  gospel  to  some  other 
agency  as  He  once  transferred  it  from  the  Pharisees  to  the  Gentiles. 

II. 

Potent  as  these  objections  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  to  salvation 
are,  I  am  convinced  that  they  are,  after  all,  based  upon  a  superficial 
view  of  the  significance  of  the  gospel  itself  and  a  confusion  of  ortho- 
doxy with  genuine  evangelicalism.  Another  fundamental  difficulty  with 
them  all  is  an  impatience  with  human  nature.  If  the  conditions  which 
have  been  mentioned  are  to  be  faced  frankly  as  liabilities,  there  are 
assets  which  are  just  as  frankly  to  be  counted. 

1.  In  the  first  place  there  is  the  capacity  of  the  gospel  to  stir  in  hu- 
man hearts  a  hatred  of  all  injustice  and  to  nerve  them  to  combat  every 
institution  that  countenances  injustice.  Wliatever  else  the  eschatological 
message  of  Christianity  may  involve,  it  never  blinks  the  issue  of  the 
conflict  between  forces  of  oppression  and  forces  of  righteousness.  The 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  triumph  of  Christ  are  never  set 
forth  in  the  gospel  as  a  simple  and  peaceful  evolution.  The  forces  of 
Gog  and  Magog  must  be  conquered  by  the  forces  of  the  Christ  who  came 
to  send  into  the  world  not  peace,  but  a  sword.  The  non-resistance  which 
Jesus  teaches  is  not  passive  submission  in  the  presence  of  injustice  done 
others.  The  very  Christ  that  taught  men  not  to  struggle  for  their  in- 
dividual rights  fought  the  good  fight  of  faith  against  the  Pharisees  who 
were  seeking  to  belittle  the  people's  rights.  There  may  be  those  who 
with  all  sort  of  complacent  optimism  believe  that  both  individual  and 


Tuesday,  June  20. J  REL'OIW  OF  I'ROCEEDISUH.  85 

social  evolution  may  be  unconsciously  transformed  into  the  likeness  of 
tlie  kingdom  of  (iod.  The  gospel  never  contemplates  any  such  academic 
victory.  It  teaches  men  to  practice  no  auto-suggestion  that  men  or  in- 
stitutions are  belter  than  they  really  are.  It  knows  only  too  well  that 
there  ai*e  those  who  will  oppress  the  weak  until  they  tear  to  oppress 
them;  that  there  are  institutions  in  society  that  must  be  destroyed, 
rather  than  transformed;  that  there  are  men  who  prefer  to  exploit, 
rather  than  to  love  their  fellows;  but  it  teaches  also  in  its  wonderful 
messianic  program  that  God  Himself  will,  through  His  people,  i)ut  an 
end  to  such  oppression. 

But  the  hatred  inculcated  by  the  gospel  is  not  the  hatred  inculcated 
by  revolutionary  socialism.  It  is  a  righteous  hatred  of  unrighteousness 
and  the  conflict  which  it  expects  is  only  the  last  resort  by  which  those 
ruen  who  cannot  be  induced  to  be  loving  are  deprixed  of  the  control  of 
social  forces.  A  gospel  without  this  blood  and  iron  in  its  message  would 
be  a  message  of  flaccid  optimism  which  would  have  made  impossible  every 
hero  of  the  faitli  who  subdued  kingdoms  in  the  interest  of  larger  equal- 
ity  and  fraternity. 

2.  In  the  second  place  the  gospel,  just  because  it  is  a  much  wider 
term  than  ecclesiasticism,  can  find  its  followers  in  many  an  institution 
which  is  not  strictly  religious.  Indeed,  it  is  fair  to  say  that  in  the  same 
proportion  as  the  church  comes  under  the  sway  of  the  gospel  does  it  in- 
spire its  members  to  larger  co-operation  with  other  institutions  which  are 
seeking,  in  the  evangelical  spirit,  to  bring  the  ideals  of  Christ  into 
social  life.  So  clearly  are  we  coming  to  see  this  great  truth  that  those 
who  are  putting  the  principles  of  Jesus  in  operation  are  not  His  ene- 
mies, whatever  are  their  ecclesiastical  relation,  that  men  are  sometimes 
inclined  to  be  impatient  in  their  criticism  of  the  church.  Sometimes  they 
would  even  say  that  the  labor  union  and  fraternal  organizations  are  really 
more  Christian  than  is  the  church  itself.  But  such  criticism  is,  after 
all,  unfair  to  the  new  spirit  which  is  finding  expresfeion  in  our  church 
activities.  Just  as  churches  are  themselves  learning  larger  co-operation 
in  service  to  humanity',  both  spiritual  and  material,  are  they  also  finding 
that  the  evangelical  impulse  is  a  bond  of  co-operation  between  thi?ir 
members  and  non-ecclesiastical  movements.  It  is  this  impulse  to  co- 
operation that  so  sharply  distinguishes  the  evangelical  from  the  ecclesi- 
astical spirit,  and  in  it  lies  one  of  the  most  cogent  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  gospel  of  love  which  can  promote  the  work  of  friendly  co-opera- 
tion is  to  maintain  itself  throughout  the  entire  social  order. 

3.  But  even  more  significant  is  the  power  of  the  gospel  actually  to 
jiroduce  loving  lives  whose  aim  is  to  give  rather  than  to  get  justice.  If 
one  looks  back  over  the  Christian  centuries  he  will  find  plenty  of  im{)er- 
fections  in  the  history  of  the  church  but  he  will  also  find  that  the 
ideals  of  the  church  have  alwa3-s  been  higher  than  the 
ideals  of  the  times  to  which  it  belonged.  And  this  superiority  has  been 
due,  not  to  the  fact  that  necessarily  the  church  was  more  learned  or  bet- 
ter organized,  but  to  the  far  more  striking  fact  that  it  has  sought, 
through  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  tiie  day.  True, 
the  most  outstanding  expressions  of  this  really  evangelical  spirit  have 
been  ameliorative,  but  he  would  be  a  most  doctrinaire  critic  who  would 
say  that  as  long  as  tliere  is  sin  and  misery  in  the  world  amelioration  is 
not  necessary  and  blessed.  When  one  thinks  of  the  sacrifices  Christians 
have  made  to  found  hospitals  aiul  schools,  to  give  alms  and  many  another 


86  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

form  of  helpfulness,  and  then  compares  such  activities  with  those  of 
non-Christian  people,  he  sees  clearly  enough  that  the  gospel  of  a  loving 
Christ  and  a  loving  God  has  had  the  power  to  evoke  love  for  men ;  and  if 
it  be  tnie  that  nowadays  we  see  the  true  spirit  of  Jesus  is  not  exhausted 
in  efforts  to  ameliorate  but  must  move  over  to  the  abolition  of  conditions 
from  which  misery  springs,  it  is  only  what  we  should  expect  of  a  Chris- 
tian spirit  that  is  growing  more  intelligent.  To  doubt  that  the  gospel 
which  has  evoked  self-sacrificing  love  in  the  past  is  to  succeed  in  evok- 
ing the  same  love  under  our  modern  conditions,  is  to  throw  history  out 
the  window. 

4.  And  this  conviction  is  deepened  as  one  sees  the  general  tendency 
of  social  evolution  to  move  towards  the  ideal  of  fraternity  which  Jesus 
says  is  to  mark  the  kingdom  of  God.  Recall  the  wonderful  social  effects 
of  Christian  missions.  True,  the  gospel  has  been  aided  by  other  forces 
born  of  Western  civilization,  but  it  has  also  been  hindered  by  them.  If 
Occidental  commerce  were  thoroughly  Christian,  Oriental  nations  would 
have  been  far  more  completely  evangelized  (in  the  deepest  sense  of  the 
word)  than  they  are  to-day.  For  the  gospel  itself  as  it  appears  in  the 
printed  page  of  the  Bible  and  in  the  simplest  message  of  the  missionary 
has  amazing  power  to  release  social  forces  and  correct  social  injustice. 

Nor  need  we  look  at  the  elemental  triumphs  of  the  gospel.  We  can 
follow  the  advice  of  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  and  pass  on  to  the  more 
complicated  evidence  of  social  evolution.  If  one  will  study  the  history  of 
class  conflicts  where  men  have  fought  to  gain  justice  and  privileges 
which  should  have  been  freely  granted  them,  a  remarkable  conclusion 
seems  inevitable :  Out  of  the  bitter  comes  the  sweet ;  out  of  the  conflict 
has  come  larger  fraternity  as  well  as  equality;  out  of  class  hatreds  have 
come  an  appreciable  approach  towards  the  democratizing  of  privilege 
which  is  the  social  expression  of  the  principles  of  Jesus. 

It  is  not  merely  that  men  have  found  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy. 
Often  to  their  surprise  they  have  found  that  the  extension  of  privilege  is 
advantageous  to  all  parties  combined.  In  every  struggle  which  has  re- 
sulted in  the  extension  of  privilege  the  classes  who  have  surrendered 
privileges  have  reaped  such  advantages  as  to  be  forced  to  approve  their 
own  defeat.  If,  as  the  early  fathers  so  finely  said,  the  soul  is  naturally 
Christian,  it  is  just  as  true  that  social  evolution  is  teleologieally  Chris- 
tian. Individuals,  it  is  true,  may  lament  the  lack  of  privileges  which 
their  forefathers  may  have  possessed,  but  the  enriched  social  life,  which 
has  come  from  the  struggle  in  which  their  interests  were  apparently  de- 
feated, has  brought  so  many  more  opportunities  that  if  the  choice  were 
possible  they  would  not  be  ready  to  exchange  the  one  for  the  other.  What 
man  of  South  Carolina  would  re-establish  negro  slavery?  What  man  of 
Massachusetts  would  re-establish  the  New  England  theocracy?  One 
increasing  purpose  does  run  through  the  ages,  and  that  purpose  leads, 
not  toward  the  development  of  the  power  of  the  few  over  the  many,  but 
although  not  steadily  and  always  with  the  possibilities  of  further  strug- 
gle, towards  that  democracy  of  privilege  which  is  the  social  equivalent 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  There  is  no  reply  to  this  argument  from  the 
general  tendency  of  history  except  that  drawn  from  the  over-emphasis 
of  the  evil  born  of  the  process.  And  in  history,  as  in  tracing  the  course 
of  a  river,  a  man  must  not  mistake  the  eddies  which  the  river  causes  for 
the  general  direction  of  the  mighty  current  itself.  If  there  can  be  de- 
tected any  purpose  in  history,  it  is  toward  a  fraternal  democracy.     And 


Tuesday,  Jiiiu"2().|  UIAORI)  OF  ritOCEEDl'SGS.  87 

is  not  this  precisely  what  the  srospel  sets  forth  in  its  eschatology,  namely, 
the  inevitableness  of  that  social  order  in  which  the  Heavenly  Father  is 
to  be  supreme  and  which  is  to  be  composed  of  those  who  are  ready  to 
treat  one  another  as  brothers'? 

5.  Another  consideration  of  great  moment  is  one  which  every  Chris- 
tian must  reckon  as  final.  The  ijospel  must  be  sufTicient  for  social  salva- 
tion because  it  inculcates  life  in  accordance  with  the  character  of  God 
who  is  Love.  If  we  hold,  as  hold  we  must,  that  God  is  immanent  in  our 
world,  and  that  His  will  in  some  mysterious  way  gets  expression  in  the 
course  of  human  events,  our  faith  in  Him  as  Father  will  not  permit  us  to 
believe  that  He  will  permit  His  world  to  escape  that  great  process  which 
is  the  expression  of  His  will.  The  pessimism  which  sees  escape  for  the 
world  only  in  a  cataclysm  is  really  a  denial  of  God's  presence  in  His 
world.  We  dare  attempt  to  bring  the  institutions  of  the  world  under  the 
control  of  the  principles  of  love,  because  we  believe  that  we  are  working 
with  Him.  If  the  gospel  is  really  a  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  it  is 
something  more  than  a  power  unto  the  rescue  of  individuals  from  a  so- 
cial order.  It  is  the  salvation  of  the  processes  of  social 
evolution  themselves.  And  while  this  places  upon  the  modern-mind- 
ed Christian  a  heavier  burden  of  faith  than  was  borne  by  his  prede- 
cessors, who  looked  for  rescue  rather  than  for  salvation,  it  is  not  as 
heavy  a  burden  as  that  which  would  seek  to  isolate  God  from  His  world 
and  deny  that  His  will  which  rules  in  the  process  of  the  universe  has  ab- 
dicated in  human  history.  Here  Ave  face  the  true  Christian  philosophy 
of  society :  the  impossibility  of  the  exclusion  of  individuals  from  the 
influence  of  their  social  environments  leads  to  the  deepened  conviction 
that  God  must  express  Himself  in  the  life  of  society,  as  well  as  in  the 
individual  lives  which  are  involved  in  society. 

6.  And  finally  it  must  be  said  that  the  gospel  as  a  mere  message  is 
impotent,  except  as  it  moves  men  and  women  to  action  in  accordance 
with  its  ideals.  Here  it  finds  its  supreme  test,  for  love  means  sacrifice.  A 
gospel  without  the  cross  is  a  gospel  without  truth  and  without  power. 
Only  the  cross  must  not  be  simply  the  cross  of  Jesus  but  that  which  ev- 
eryone of  His  disciples  takes  as  he  attempts  to  follow  Him.  And  this 
vicarious  spirit  which  was  revealed  eo  triumphantly-  on  Calvary  and  in 
the  tomb  in  the  Garden  must  not  only  be  expi"essed  in  individual,  but  in 
social  groups  as  well.  The  chief  business  of  the  church  is  not  to  make 
social  programs,  but  to  prepare  men's  hearts  to  organize  social  advance. 
Xo  other  institution  is  attempting  to  democratize  privilege  by  insisting 
upon  surrender  of  privilege  on  the  part  of  those  who  possess  it.  Other 
organizations  seek  to  gain  justice.  The  gospel  seeks  to  give  justice. 
Christianity  alone  insists  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 
It  contains  a  call  to  a  heroism  that  is  incomparably  larger  than  the  call 
of  war.  True  evangelicalism  may  or  may  not  be  theological  orthodoxy, 
but  no  man  or  group  of  men  can  be  said  to  be  actually  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  Christ  who  will  not  practice  the  Golden  Rule  in  the  spirit  of 
sacrifice  born  of  the  mind  which  is  of  Christ. 

It  is  an  audacious  proposal  which  the  gospel  thus  makes.  The  lion  of 
the  tribe  of  justice-seekers  becomes  the  lamb  of  the  God  of  Love.  But 
as  we  recall  the  years  which  have  passed  since  Jesus  first  taught  and  em- 
bodied this  message  of  Love  which,  in  its  impulse  to  realize  itself  in  ser- 
vice, stops  at  no  sacrifice  we  are  filled  with  a  self-condemning  optimism. 
The  blood   of   the   martvrs   has   been    the  seed   of  the   church,   and   the 


88  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

church  which  has  so  imperfectly,  but  steadily,  embodied  the  principles  of 
Jesus,  has  in  turn  taught  men  how  to  applj'  those  principles  with  ever- 
increasing  extension  to  the  social  difficulties  of  the  day.  In  this  spirit  it 
must  continue  to  live.  It  is  no  spectacular  service  which  it  thus  is  called 
to  render  to  the  changing  order.  It  is  the  service  of  love  that  has  hatred 
and  opposition  only  for  that  which  is  not  born  of  love.  It  must  carry  to 
the  world  the  ever-deepening  conviction  that  love  is  the  will  of  God,  no 
matter  what  its  embodiment  must  cost,  and  it  must  educate  men  into  a 
sensitiveness  as  to  the  rights  of  others,  until  instinctively  they  no 
longer  look  upon  their  own  things  but  upon  the  things  of  others.  And 
if  such  Christlike  spirit  shall  lead  them  to  some  Calvary  of  economic 
renunciation  or  Christlike  sharing  of  their  goods  with  the  multitudes, 
the  gospel  will  be  only  fulfilling  its  divine  mission.  For  the  gospel 
stakes  itself  upon  the  supremacy  of  love.  The  church  will  fulfill  its 
mission  as  it  trains  the  regenerate  life  of  its  members  to  see  the  social 
implication  of  that  regenerate  life  which  is  begotten  of  a  Heavenly 
Father.  And  as  it  grasps  this  su^Dreme  mission  it  will  increasingly  ex- 
hibit the  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  for  social  salvation,  not  by  metaphysi- 
cal creeds  but  by  the  test  of  the  apostle  himself:  Men  will  be  known  to 
love  God  whom  they  have  not  seen  when  they  love  their  brothers  whom 
they  have  seen. 

After  the  singing  of  the  Doxology  the  session  adjourned. 
YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  SESSION. 

Tuesday  Afternoon,  June  20,  1911. 

After  the  song  service  the  session  was  opened  with  Rev.  George  T. 
Webb  in  the  chair. 

Mr.  Webb  :  This  meeting  is  not  a  regular  session  of  the  Baptist 
World  Alliance;  it  has  not  been  called  together  by  any  organization 
but  by  a  few  people  who  are  intensely  interested  in  the  great  question 
of  Christian  education  and  training  for  our  young  people,  the  world  over. 
In  view  of  these  conditions  we  find  ourselves  now  without  any  presiding 
officer;  it  is  the  first  business  of  this  meeting  to  select  one  to  preside 
over  the  meeting. 

A.  H.  Vautier:  I  move  that  Dr.  0.  C.  S.  Wallace,  Pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  at  Baltimore,  be  elected  Chairman  of  this  meeting. 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  Rev.  Mr.  McConnell  and  carried. 

Rev.  0.  C.  S.  Wallace  on  taking  the  chair  said:  I  am  very  glad  to 
serve  as  the  chairman  of  a  gathering  of  young  people.  I  like  to  be  recog- 
nized as  a  young  man.  An  odd  thing  has  happened  to  my  hair,  and  for 
that  reason  some  people  think  I  am  not  young,  but  I  have  been  young 
for  the  last  thirty  years  and  intend  so  to  continue.  I  thank  you  for 
choosing  me  to  serve  here  to-day  in  this  capacity;  it  reassures  me. 

Rev.  F.  C.  McConnell,  of  Texas,  led  in  prayer. 

Mr.  Webb  :  I  move  that  Mr.  Elven  Bengough,  of  Toronto,  be  secretary 
of  this  meeting.     Carried. 

Mr.  Webb  :  I  have  a  statement  I  would  like  to  make.  I  regard  this 
meeting  this  afternoon  as  a  very  significant  one,  a  meeting  that  prom- 
ises large  things,  not  only  for  the  present   hour  but  for  future  years. 


Tuesday, -luiif  JO.  I  KlJ-OHIt  OF   I'L'OCF.Iini SCS.  89 

We  have  known  a  •;reat  deal  ul'  the  Youn<;  People's  movement  in  all  of 
our  churches  tor  a  number  of  years,  but  this  is  the  first  time  that  there 
has  been  a  meetinu-  called  of  Hantists  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  con- 
sider our  res|)onsibiIity  towards  the  younii'  i)cople  of  our  denomination. 
It  is  with  this  thouiilil  in  mind  and  witli  a  view  to  continuing-  the  good 
influence  of  such  a  nieetinu'  as  this  that  I  have  desired  to  present  a  series 
of  resolutions.  [  am  very  sure  that  the  resolutions  I  present  will  pro- 
voke no  discussion.  They  will  be  moved  by  Dr.  Gilmour  and  seconded 
by  Dr.  Truett  in  their  addresses.  They  merely  call  for  a  committee  to 
consider  something'  of  which  your  presence  to-day  indicates  your  ap- 
proval.    The  resolutions  are  as  follows : 

At  this,  the  first  meetiuu'  ever  hold  in  the  interest  of  Baptist  young 
people  throuiihout  the  world  assembled  at  Philadelphia.  June  20,  1011, 
we,  delegates  and  visitors  to  the  second  session  of  the  Baptist  World 
Alliance  wish  to  record  our  views  regarding  the  work  for  our  young 
people  in  the  following  statement  and  resolutions: 

Whereas,  Our  denomination  has  always  recognized  the  necessity  for 
training  our  young  people  in  our  history  and  doctrines,  and  in  methods 
of  Christian   work,   and, 

Whereas,  We  appreciate  the  good  work  already  done  by  existing 
organizations  in  vai-ious  sections  of  our  World  Field,  yet  we  believe  tlie 
time  has  come  when  there  should  be  a  closer  atTiliation  of  Baptist  Young 
People  everywhere. 

Therefore,  Be  it  Resolved, — 

1.  That  we  do  now  appoint  a  committee  of  twenty-five  (25)  persons 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  devise  plans  by  wdiicli  a  world-w-ide  movement 
for  combining  all  our  young  people  may  be  consummated. 

2.  That  this  committee  be  and  is  hereby  instructed  to  determine  its 
own  officers  and  organization  and  to  decide  as  to  how  these  instructions 
can  best  be  carried  out. 

3.  That  this  committee  be  authorized  to  present  the  results  of  its 
labor  to  the  denomination  at  such  time  as  may  seem  to  it  desirable, 
but  in  any  event  not  later  than  three  years  from  this  date. 

4.  That  those  present  who  may  wish  to  contribute  toward  the  ex- 
pense of  this  committee,  may  hand  their  offering  at  the  close  of  this 
meeting  to  the  person  designated  by  the  chairman,  and  that  the  commit- 
tee make  such  further  arrangement  as  may  be  necessary  for  its  ex- 
penses but  is  not  to  make  any  public  appeal  to  the  denomination. 

5.  That  the  chairman  appoint  the  above  conunittee  of  twenty-five. 

Chairman:  These  resolutions  will  be  moved  by  Professor  Gilraour,  of 
McMaster  University.  Some  of  you  don't  know  Professor  Gilmour  be- 
cause you  are  not  quite  all  Canadians  or  ex-Canadians.  Professor  Gil- 
mour is  said  by  some  to  be  the  best  loved  Baptist  in  Canada,  I  don't 
know  whether  that  is  so  or  not  because  I  have  not  been  there  for  five 
years,  but  Professor  Gilmour.  will  win  your  love  as  he  speaks  to  you 
to-day. 


90  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Professor  J.  L.  Gilmour:  Mr.  Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen:  It  is 
my  duty  this  afternoon  to  move  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions  read  by 
Mr.  Webb  and  to  speak  for  twenty-five  minutes  in  support  of  those  reso- 
lutions. Two  weeks  ago  it  became  quite  apparent  that  Mr.  McNeill 
would  not  be  able  to  be  present  at  this  meeting  and  to  speak  on  the 
subject  that  had  been  given  to  him  to  discuss.  He  very  greatly  regrets 
that,  and  I  know  all  regTet  it,  but  I  am  here  without  any  apology  be- 
cause this  is  a  great  subject  and  this  is  a  great  audience. 

As  more  fully  defined  by  the  program  committee  our  subject  is  "The 
Worth  of  Youth  for  the  Life  of  a  Church,"  and  by  ''church"  we  mean 
a  Baptist  church,  the  local  organization  that  we  love  to  call  a  New  Tes- 
tament church.  One  of  the  many  reasons  why  I  regret  Mr.  McNeill's 
absence  this  afternoon  is  that  he  himself  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  truth 
of  the  subject  that  is  now  to  be  discussed.  Those  of  you  who  were 
present  six  years  ago  in  London  and  heard  his  very  eloquent  speech  in 
Albert  Hall  must  have  felt  at  that  time,  as  you  continue  to  feel  to-day, 
that  God  has  raised  up  a  young  man  of  great  power,  and  you  must  have 
felt,  as  we  all  feel,  that  youth  is  a  thing  of  great  value.  Ten  days  ago 
I  was  in  Mr.  McNeill's  native  county,  the  county  of  Bruce,  and  was  told 
that  in  the  little  church  in  which  he  was  brought  up,  when  he  made  his 
first  public  speech  he  made  it  in  a  little  young  people's  meeting  and 
could  hardly  be  heard  four  seats  from  where  he  stood.  But  that  youth 
grew  until  to-day  he  is  one  of  our  most  eloquent  speakers  in  the  Baptist 
denomination  in  Canada. 

There  are  four  words  that  define  the  limits  of  our  subject  and  within 
which  we  are  expected  to  feed  our  thought  this  afternoon.  The  first 
is  ''youth."  I  shall  not  attempt  psychologically  to  define  youth,  but  will 
say  in  general  that  it  is  that  period  of  life  between  childhood  on  the  one 
hand  and  maturity  on  the  other.  There  are  some  that  linger  longer  in 
this  period  than  do  others,  but  for  general  purposes  that  definition  will 
serve  to-day.  I  am  to  speak  of  the  worth  of  youth.  That,  of  course, 
does  not  mean  that  we  do  not  recognize  the  value  of  maturity.  We  do 
that,  but  what  is  to  be  discussed  to-day  is  that  time  of  life  which  lies  be- 
tween childhood  and  maturity  and  we  are  to  consider  its  religious  value 
for  the  life  of  a  church.  We  are  to  look  at  the  worth  of  youth.  We 
might  take  a  great  deal  of  time  in  discussing  the  limitations  of  youth. 
These  are  very  many,  and  one  might  grow  very  eloquent  on  that  sub- 
ject. We  might  speak  of  the  weaknesses  of  youth  and  the  wayward- 
ness of  youth  and  the  short-sightedness  of  youth ;  but  I  am  to  speak  on 
a  more  generous  subject  to-day  and  that  is  the  worth,  the  downright 
value  of  youth,  that  highly  prized  period  of  time  that  lies  between  child- 
hood on  the  one  hand  and  maturity  on  the  other. 

The  next  word  that  defines  our  subject  is  "church,"  that  is  a  local 
church  built  on  what  we  regard  as  the  New  Testament  model.  Now, 
that  after  all  is  the  fighting  unit  in  the  great  conflict  in  which  we  are 
engaged.  The  individual  church  is  the  fighting  unit  in  our  great  strat- 
egy ;  that  is  the  Baptist  position  which  seems  more  and  more  to  be  called 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  KlJCOliD  OF  I'liOCEEDl^SGS.  91 

for  to-day.  We  stoutly  aiul  with  determination  decline  to  accept  that 
\-iew  of  the  church  that  is  held  by  the  Roman  Catholics.  I  have  no 
word  to  say  about  Roman  Catholics  to-day  that  is  harsh;  and  yet  Irankly 
and  openly  we  say  that  their  conception  of  a  church  is  not  our  concep- 
tion of  a  church,  that  however  that  conception  may  appeal  to  the  im- 
agination, how'ever  picturesque  it  may  be  made,  the  church  is  after 
all  the  little  local  organization  of  people,  and  that  is  the  fighting  unit  in 
the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Whether  this  church  meet,  in  a  white 
clap-board  church  in  the  hills  of  Vermont  or  in  a  log  hut  in  the  back- 
ward parts  of  my  own  country,  or  whether  it  overlook  the  fjords  of  Nor- 
way, or  whether  it  be  in  one  of  those  village  buildings  in  England  where 
the  Baptists  seem  to  have  such  wonderful  facility  to  get  into  out  of  the 
way  places,  or  whether  it  be  in  Russia  or  whether  it  be  in  China  or 
whether  it  be  in  India — for  Baptists  the  fighting  unit  is  the  local  church. 
If  we  can  put  life  into  that  we  have  won  our  battle.  I  should  like  to 
say  more. 

To  di'op  the  military  metaphor — the  organizing  unit  for  the  Christian 
statesman  is  the  local  church,  and  it  is  a  harder  thing  to  direct  a  band 
of  people  in  constructive  statesmanship  than  it  is  to  carry  a  point  in 
the  thrill  of  battle  and  then  be  done.  General  Wolfe,  the  man  who,  in 
my  country,  took  the  city  of  Quebec  in  the  year  1759,  was  a  great  man 
because  he  won  his  point  in  the  teeth  of  great  difficulties.  But  it  re- 
quired gi'eater  men  to  come  after  him  and  to  construct  out  of  these  two 
nationalities  a  people  such  as  we  have  to-day. 

And  it  seems  to  me  the  time  has  come  when  our  Baptist  people  shall 
have  to  accept  the  responsibilities  that  come  from  constructive  church 
statesmanship  as  well  as  the  responsibilities  that  come  for 
fighting  against  those  things  that  we  believe  to  be  wrong.  It  takes  a 
certain  kind  of  ability  to  be  a  leader  of  the  opposition;  it  takes  a  broader 
kind  of  ability  to  be  the  constructive  leader  of  the  government,  and  too 
many  of  our  Baptist  people  look  upon  themselves  too  much  as  leaders 
of  the  opposition  and  not  quite  enough  as  those  that  have  had  laid  upon 
them  the  duty  of  constructive  statesmanship  in  the  great  work  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Now  in  this  task  that  is  before  us  when  I  speak  of 
statesmanship,  I  do  not  think  of  the  great  statesman  as  one  who  occu- 
pies the  position  of  the  pope  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Wlien  I 
speak  of  the  Statesman  that  is  organizing  these  units  I  speak  of  Jesus, 
who  walks  amid  the  candlesticks.  But  the  organizing  unit  in  our 
statesmanship  is  the  local  church  of  which  I  have  spoken  already,  and 
we  must  never  speak  slightingly  of  these  little  groups  of  people  that  are 
banded  together  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  to  carry  out  his  plans. 

A  little  while  ago  I  was  in  the  northern  part  of  my  own  province  and 
a  farmer  took  me  out  to  show  me  where  he  was  growing  raspberries. 
He  said,  ''You  see  that  great  pile  yonder  at  the  end  of  those  bushes? 
I  have  cut  all  those  out  from  these  bushes,  because  the  philosophy  of 


92  THE  BAPTIST  M'ORLD  ALLIANCE. 

growing  berries  is  to  let  the  sun  gather  all  around  so  tliat  it  will  touch 
every  branch  and  every  side." 

Now,  I  know  that  there  is  a  strong  appeal  to  the  imagination  in  an 
organization  like  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Last  September 
I  was  present  in  Montreal  and  saw  the  Eucharistic  Congress  that  was 
held  there,  and  it  seemed  that  it  could  appear  impressive  to  see  the  long 
line  of  people,  and  then  the  long  line  of  bishops  with  their  golden  mitres 
glittering  in  the  September  sun,  and  then  to  see  the  representative  of 
the  pope  carrying  under  a  canopy  the  monstrance  in  which  was  held 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  body  of  Christ.  And  now  at  the  high  altar 
at  Fletcher's  Field,  with  the  September  moon  looking  down  in  the  twi- 
light while  they  chanted  their  Latin  chants,  it  was  all  very  impressive. 
But  our  meeting  last  night  was  to  me  more  impressive  still.  Instead  of 
having  the  wafer  as  the  center  we  have  the  Bible,  the  word  of  God,  as 
the  center.  Instead  of  having  those  bishops  with  their  gorgeous  robes 
as  the  chief  thing  in  that  spectacular  march,  we  had  these  men  from 
Norway  and  Sweden,  we  had  these  men  from  Russia  and  from  Esthonia, 
and  I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  have  seldom  seen  anything  in  my  life  more 
impressive  than  what  we  saw  last  night,  as  those  men  stood  up  proclaim- 
ing the  essential  catholicity,  as  Dr.  Clifford  said  this  morning,  of  the 
Baptist   position. 

To  me  it  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  things  that  spontanepusly  these 
people  should  in  so  many  places  have  arrived  at  these  positions,  and  it 
goes  to  show  that  if  we  have  not  constructive  statesmanship  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  we  as  Baptist  people  shall  be  recreant  to  the  trust  that  has 
been  committed  to  us;  we  shall  be  flinging  away  a  heritage  of  liberty 
that  has  been  given  at  a  great  price  to  us.  So  I  come  back  to  remind  our- 
selves of  this,  that  in  spite  of  all  these  disadvantages,  in  spite  of  all 
these  apparent  weaknesses,  we  still  hold  to  the  church  as  the  unit.  We 
recognize  its  difficulties,  but  we  believe  that  it  is  the  model  of  God,  and 
we  believe  that  this  is  the  polity  for  the  future,  which  will  let  in  the 
light  and  the  sun  on  all  sides. 

There  is  one  other  word  that  defines  our  subject  and  that  is  the  word 
"life";  we  are  to  speak  of  the  worth  of  youth  for  the  life  of  a  church. 
That  little  church  out  on  the  country  cross-roads,  that  little  church  with 
its  difficulties — I  am  thinking  of  these  as  well  as  of  those  churches  that 
meet  in  stately  buildings  in  some  great  metropolis — but  the  thing  that 
we  are  thinking  of  to-day  is  the  life  of  that  church,  for  Baptist  people 
have  everything  to  suffer  when  they  have  not  life  in  their  church.  Mr. 
Alexander  Grant,  a  pastor  in  Winnipeg,  came  and  spoke  at  a  meeting 
which  has  in  Ontario  and  Quebec  become  since  then  historic.  Mr.  Grant 
had  gone  out  into  the  West  and  had  caught  sight  of  the  prairies  that 
fade  far  away  until  the  sky  touches  the  earth,  with  their  purple  flowers 
and  their  great  expanse,  and  he  came  to  us  and  said,  "What  the  Baptist 
people  of  these  provinces  need  is  horizon."  That  was  true  then  and  it 
is  true  to-day  and  in  a  deeper  sense;  what  we  still  need  to-day  is  indeed 
horizon. 


Tuesday,  J uiK'  120.1  RKCniil)   OF   Ph'OClJl-JDJXafil.  93 

But  I  believe  there  is  another  thing  we  need  as  well  as  horizon  and 
that  is  intensity  of  life.  There  is  nothing  that  will  keep  our  Baptist 
churches  together  unless  we  have  life.  There  is  nothing  that  will  enable 
us  to  do  our  work  unless  we  have  life.  We  have  no  polity  tiiat  will  auto- 
matically draw  us  and  lead  us  over  these  apparently  diflicult  places;  but 
if  we  have  life,  then  our  problems  are  solved.  When  we  were  boys  we 
used  to  spin  tops — and  now  that  our  boys  are  growing  up  we  see  tiie 
philosophy  of  the  top  again;  if  a  top  does  not  go  it  falls;  if  it  has  not  got 
life  it  drops.  To  be  sure  the  mox-e  life  it  has  the  less  noise  it  makes. 
Life  doesn't  mean  noisiness;  life  means  that  which  responds  to  the  re- 
ality that  is  around  us  and  to  the  reality  that  is  above  us.  But  as  a  top 
will  never  spin  except  it  has  life,  so  a  Baptist  church  will  never  continue 
to  exist  unless  it  has  spiritual  life  and  we  risk  everything  on  that  under 
the  providence  of  (Jod. 

I  am  often  amazed  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  in  reading 
history,  to  discover  how  much  God  has  risked  on  simple  things.  I  think 
of  the  fact  that  Jesus  who  spoke  his  matchless  words  of  grace  never 
wrote  a  book  but  trusted  to  others  to  transmit  these  words  to  posterity. 
I  think  of  the  time  when  Moses,  that  great  leader,  was  placed  on  the 
river  in  a  little  basket  and  left  there.  What  if  some  great  denizen  of  the 
Nile  had  come  and  swallowed  the  little  arkf  What  would  have  happened 
to  history?  But  God  took  the  risk — I  speak  reverently.  I  think  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  being  let  down  by  a  basket  from  a  window  on  the  wall  of 
Damascus.  What  if  the  rope  had  broken  and  if  Paul  had  met  his  death? 
We  should  never  have  had  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  or  any  of  those 
other  marvelous  epistles  of  Paul.    But  God  took  the  risk. 

Brethren,  it  seems  to  me  one  of  the  most  impressive  things  when  you 
come  to  turn  it  over,  that  for  the  extension  of  the  kingdom,  the  Lord  is 
willing  to  trust  these  little  local  churches  with  the  carrying  of  the  great- 
est message  that  this  world  has  ever  heard.  Then,  too,  w'e  must  have  life 
if  we  are  to  shelter  ourselves  from  the  scorn  of  the  world.  W^e  say 
that  we  believe  in  a  regenerate  church  membership,  but  if  our  people  are 
not  living  regenerate  lives  we  are  a  scorn  in  the  face  of  the  world  because 
we  profess  what  we  do  not  have. 

Now,  I  know  I  have  made  the  mistake  of  a  man  who  has  not  had  a 
long  time  to  prepare  and  have  spent  the  largest  part  of  my  speech  on  the 
introduction.  And  yet  I  do  not  know  that  I  would  change  that  even 
if  I  had  had  a  little  longer  time,  because  it  seems  to  me  to  be  absolutely 
imperative  that  we  should  get  before  our  minds  clearly  the  problem  of 
strategy  that  we  have  to  solve  in  order  that  we  may  be  able  to  see  the 
place  of  young  people  or  of  any  other  part  of  our  forces  in  this  work 
that  we  have  to  do  under  the  guidance  of  God's  Spirit.  Youth  has 
worth  because  it  is  a  time  to  rescue  priceless  lives.  Oh,  oiie  might  grow 
eloquent  when  ho  thinks  of  the  possibilities  of  turning  lives — lives  that 
may,  if  they  go  this  way,  be  plunged  into  the  mire  and  the  slime  of  sin, 
or  that  may  be  led  into  the  dignity  of  being  sons  of  God.    I  have  in  mv 


94  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

notes  a  considerable  amplification  of  that  but  must  pass  on  to  the  rest. 
Youth  has  worth  because  it  is  a  force  to  harness.  Over  in  my  province 
we  have  been  harnessing  the  Niagara  Falls,  and  the  city  of  Toronto  and 
a  number  of  other  places  are  now  lighted  by  the  force  that  comes  over 
eighty  miles  from  that  great  cataract.  That  cataract  is  harnessed.  Now 
in  our  churches  we  have  the  worth  of  youth  before  us,  because  youth  is 
not  only  a  field  to  win  but  it  is  a  force  to  harness. 

I  was  very  glad  that  the  leader  of  the  singing  this  afternoon  classiiied 
this  audience  and  made  it  evident  that  there  are  so  many  pastors  here. 

0  brethren  in  the  ministry,  we  need  the  minister,  he  must  always  be  the 
leader  of  his  people;  we  need  the  laymen;  we  need  the  ladies;  we  need 
the  Sunday-school  worker;  but  we  need  that  which  youth  can  supply, 
and  if  this  is  left  out  we  shall  be  that  much  weaker  for  our  great  task. 
Youth  provides  the  workers  for  the  future.  I  wish  I  had  time  to  speak 
about  the  need,  the  dire,  the  absolute  need  that  there  is  that  we  should 
get  the  brightest  boys  and  young  men  to-day  for  the  gospel  ministry. 
That  is  the  time  to  get  them  and  if  we  don't  get  them  then,  perhaps  we 
won't  get  them  at  all. 

But  think  of  the  positive  contribution  that  these  young  people  make 
and  can  make  now  in  the  way  of  thought,  for  example.  We  always  have 
transitions  in  thought.  The  pastor  is  making  a  great  mistake  who  does 
not  know  what  the  young  peoi^le  are  thinking  about,  because  things  in 
thought  that  present  great  difficulty  to  the  older  men  may  present  no  dif- 
ficulty to  the  younger  men,  and  the  younger  men  and  women  may  be 
right  because  they  breathe  what  the  GeiTuan  people  call  the  Zeitgeist, 
the  spirit  of  the  times — and  we  shall  make  a  mistake  in  the  advance  of 
thought  if  we  do  not  listen  to  what  the  younger  people  have  to  say  as 
well  as  weigh  what  the  older  people  have  to  say.  Young  people  also  are 
able  to  make  a  contribution  in  energy,  in  work.  As  we  grow  older  there 
are  certain  details  that  we  do  not  want  to  be  burdened  with,  but  here  are 
these  young  people  willing  and  anxious  to  do  that  hard  work  and  there 
is  force  running  to  waste  if  we  do  not  harness  it  for  this  active  work. 

Then  youth  presents  a  dash  of  chivalry.  As  we  get  older  perhaps  we 
get  less  chivalrous,  but  one  of  the  traditions  of  youth  is  chivalry.    I  wish 

1  had  time  to  speak  of  a  company  of  some  sixteen  young  Frenchmen  who 
went  from  the  city  of  Montreal  in  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  of 
my  country,  and  who  by  their  chivalrous  courage  held  back  a  horde  of 
eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  Indians  and  saved  Montreal,  Three  Rivers, 
and  Quebec.  They  threw  away  their  lives  to  save  the  country.  Our 
young  people  have  chivalry  yet;  I  believe  it  is  in  their  hearts  and  if  it 
were  needful  our  young  people  would  respond  as  did  Blandina,  of  whom 
we  read  in  the  fifth  Book  of  Eusebius,  who  laid  down  her  life  for  her 
faith,  in  the  southern  part  of  Gaul.  We  need  the  dash  of  chivahy  which 
the  young  people  are  ready  and  willing  to  give ;  and  we  need  also  the 
dash  of  spirituality.  I  believe  as  we  grow  older  we  see  some  things  of 
the  spiritual  life  more  clearly,  but  I  believe  also  that  there  are  some 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  h'KCOh'l)  OF  I'ROCEEDiyUH.  95 

things  that  the  people  see  in  youth  more  clearly  on  tlie  religious  side  than 
at  any  other  time.     Says  Tom  Hood : 

"I   remember,   I  remember 

The  fir-trees  dai"k  and  high ; 
I  used  to  think  their  slender  spires 

Were  close  against  the  sky; 
It  was  a  childish  ignorance 
But  now  'tis  little  joy- 
To  know  I'm  farther  off  from  heaven 

Than  when  I  was  a  boy."  (Applause.) 

Chairman:  We  have  heard  from  a  teacher;  Ave  shall  now  hear  from 
a  pastor.  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying  the  best-loved  Baptist  minister 
in  all  the  South  is  Pastor  Geoi'ge  "W.  Truett.  Somebody  behind  me  lias 
said,  "Or  the  North  either."  I  am  willing  to  agree  in  that  statement 
for  Dr.  Truett  has  been  preaching  in  the  North  from  time  to  time  and 
wherever  he  goes  he  wins  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

Rev.  George  W.  Truett,  of  Dallas,  Texas:  Certainly  I  shall  not  at- 
tempt any  extended  address.  I  have  two  reasons  for  that,  one  that  I 
don't  know  any  one  in  all  this  country  that  could  quite  faithfully  fill 
the  place  of  our  absent  President,  Dr.  Williamson.  Those  of  you  who 
have  heard  that  great-hearted  and  wonderfully  successful  pastor  I  am 
persuaded  are  ready  to  agree  with  me  that  of  all  the  men  in  these 
United  States,  he,  coming  from  the  central  section,  is  perhaps  best 
fitted  to  speak  for  these  States.  Then  I  shall  not  make  any  extended 
address  for  the  reason  that  we  all  want  to  hear  our  honored  brother 
from  beyond  the  seas.  The  noble  teacher  who  has  spoken  for  us  has 
pointed  some  exceedingly  vital  lessons.  Disraeli  said  that  the  most  glo- 
rious sight  in  all  this  country  is  a  sight  of  its  country  saved  by  its  youth. 
Certainly  the  supreme  and  crowning  work  of  the  pulpit  and  of  a  church 
is  the  work  of  enlisting  and  training  and  leading  forth  into  the  noblest 
expression  of  activity  the  young  people  of  the  land.  But  how  shall  that 
be  done?  I  would  answer  that  that  is  to  be  done,  I  think,  best  of  all  by 
striking  the  militant  note  for  theses  young  people.  A  distinguished 
scholar  and  teacher  in  one  of  our  oldest  universities  in  America  said 
not  long  since  that  what  our  modern  world  needs  is  a  moral  equivalent 
to  war.  Let  him  open  the  New  Testament,  and  from  beginning  to  end 
he  will  find  that  equivalent  in  the  moral  world,  as  under  imagery  that 
glows  and  bums,  the  great  problem  of  Christian  work  is  set  forth  even 
under  military  figures.  How  that  first  preacher  in  all  the  tides  of  time, 
the  Apostle  Paul,  set  lorth  in  glowing  imagery  under  the  militarj-  figure 
the  end  and  the  purpose  of  the  Christian  life  among  men.  how  he  made 
plain  that  following  Jesus  Christ  means  to  be  on  a  battlefield  attended 
by  more  stress  and  contingencies  and  difliculty  and  danger  and  toil  and 
courage  than  any  other  battlefield  that  earth  ever  saw! 


9(5  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

The  whole  appeal  of  the  New  Testament  is  a  challenge  to  the  heroic 
in  human  nature  and  such  a  challenge  coming  to  youth  finds  a  wonder- 
ful field  to  call  out  the  best  that  there  is  in  youth.  T  have  long  been 
persuaded  that  we  have  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  emphasizing  an- 
other side  in  our  appeal  to  people  young  and  old  touching  the  Christian 
life.  We  have  called  them  to  the  happiness  that  there  is  in  Christian 
life,  to  its  blessedness,  to  its  safety,  and  in  doing  that  we  have  done 
well  to  be  sure;  and  yet  there  is  another  side  grander  far  than  that. 
We  have  need  to  call  them  to  the  heroic;  we  have  need  to  call  them  to 
the  sacrificial ;  we  have  need  to  remind  them  that  there  are  battles  to  be 
fought  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  for  his  cause  calling  for  more  courage 
than  the  men  had  at  Bunker  Hill,  calling  for  fiercer  conflicts  than  the 
men  knew  at  Gettysburg,  calling  for  more  intrepid  daring  than  the  men 
at  Santiago,  or  who  went  up  San  Juan  Hill.  We  need  to  make  that  ap- 
peal to  call  out  the  noblest  that  is  in  youth  and  in  middle  age  and  in  old 
age  as  well.  That  appeal  Moses  made  at  Horeb.  How  strikingly  sug- 
gestive is  that  appeal,  ''Come  thou  with  us  and  we  will  do  thee  good, 
for  the  Lord  hath  spoken  good,  concerning  Israel."  It  was  the  most 
alluring  thing  that  was  ever  offered  a  man,  but  the  appeal  did  not  win 
him.  Then  Moses  said,  ''I  have  another  appeal;  come  thou  with  us  and 
thou  wilt  do  us  good ;  thou  knowest  the  road ;  thou  knowest  the  wilder- 
ness; thou  art  acquainted  with  the  country;  Hobab  we  need  thee,"  and 
Hobab  said,  "If  I  am  necessary  then  I  Avill  come."  I  am  persuaded 
that  one  of  the  things  that  has  been  sadly  lacking  in  our  ministry  is  that 
second  note  in  the  message  made  to  Hobab.  0  lawj^er  ccme  thou  with 
us,  we  need  thee;  come,  teacher  and  physician  and  financier,  mighty 
leader,  come  thou  with  us  and  thou  wilt  do  us  good.  In  that  great  ap- 
peal the  New  Testament  stands  forth  as  a  vast  mirror  emphasizing  that 
truth  every  time  you  look  at  the  pages  of  that  wonderful  book.  The 
whole  New  Testament  spirit  is  a  challenge  to  the  heroic,  and  certainly  if 
we  are  going  to  arouse  the  fire  and  passion  and  power  and  activity  of 
the  youth  of  this  land,  then  the  youth  must  hear  the  call  to  the  heroic. 
Youth  does  not  care  for  the  soft  and  prosaic  and  the  easy.  You  can- 
not interest  the  youth  in  any  mollycoddling  business.  There  must  be  ac- 
tivity and  stir  and  heroism  if  you  are  ever  to  reach  the  youth.  When 
Stanley  came  to  make  that  last  visit  back  to  Africa  he  sent  out  word 
that  if  there  Avere  a  few  young  men  who  would  like  to  go  back  with  him, 
who  would  be  willing  to  go  back  with  him  to  that  dark  land  and  help 
to  heal  that  open  sore  of  the  world,  if  there  were  a  few  that  would  be 
willing  to  go  he  would  be  very  glad,  but  it  meant  hardship,  it  meant  pri- 
vations, it  meant  difficulties,  it  meant  dangers,  it  meant  pestilence,  it 
meant  sickness,  it  meant  separation  from  home,  it  probablj^  meant  death. 
Maybe  in  the  face  of  that  a  few  would  go;  and  yet  in  a  few  days  attev 
Stanley  sounded  that  great  appeal,  one  thousand  two  hundred  of  the 
picked  youth  of  Britain  said  they  were  ready  to  go. 

0  my  brothers  in  God,  we  are  to  go  not  with  the  soft,  roseate,  easy 
appeal,  but  we  are  to  go  with  insistence  which  is  certainly  sanctioned 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  97 

on  every  page  of  the  New  Testament,  that  the  sublimest  business  of  the 
world  is  to  be  the  right  kind  of  a  Christian,  and  the  biggest  business  of 
the  world — bigger  than  politics,  bigger  than  commerce,  bigger  than  all 
phases  of  human  activity,  is  to  be  a  Christian  of  the  i-ight  sort.  The 
standard  of  the  Christian  religion  at  this  hour  is  that  we  serve  God 
with  little  driblets  and  little  scraps  of  time  and  money  and  life.  When- 
ever the  great  forces  of  America  and  Britain  and  the  rest  of  the  world 
shall  literally  re-live  Christ,  the  Kingdom  of  God  will  come  in  with  a 
speed  and  a  glow  that  will  dazzle  the  highest  optimist  in  all  our  ranks. 
All  this  means  that  we  are  to  give  our  young  people  a  vision  of  this 
supreme  business  of  all  the  world,  and  relate  this  same  young  people  in 
active  relation  with  such  vision.  Such  a  meeting  as  this,  no  man  nor  an- 
gel I  think  can  measure  its  meaning  to  the  young  people  whose  lives 
have  been  touched  by  this  Alliance.  There  have  been  visions  unfolded 
before  these  young  people  which,  please  God,  shall  find  translation  in 
every  nation  under  heaven,  and  in  the  far-off  lands  these  visions  here 
unfolded  before  these  young  people  shall  find  response  and  practical  in- 
carnation in  the  lives  of  men  and  women  that  shall  bring  in  new  eras  in 
every  nation  and  under  every  sky  in  all  the  world.  There  has  been  put 
before  them  something  worth  while,  the  biggest  business  that  man  or 
angel  ever  dreamed  of,  the  mightiest  program  that  earth  ever  heard  of, 
the  most  daring  task  that  humanity  ever  confronted.  They  have  met 
that  here,  and  life  shall  never  be  the  same  again.  This  means  that  here 
we  are  to  give  our  young  people  the  vision  and  then  relate  them  to  the 
great  problems,  educational  and  social  and  missionary  and  all  the  rest, 
for  only  in  this  way  can  great  lives  be  grown.  God's  way  of  growing  a 
great  life  is  to  harness  such  a  life  in  some  great  task.  Lives  shall  be 
dilettante  and  feminine,  and  the  masculine  nature  shall  have  died  the 
death  if  lives  shall  not  be  harnessed  to  some  great  and  worthy  and  un- 
selfish task.  That  is  the  call  to  us,  0  my  brothers,  I  am  truly  per- 
suaded, touching  this  great  young  people's  movement. 

I  am  thinking  this  moment  far  back  in  the  country  place  where  it  was 
my  joy  to  hear  the  gospel  in  the  days  when  I  was  a  lad.  I  am  thinking 
of  the  white-haired  old  country  preacher  who  stood  before  a  crowd  of  us 
lads  and  sobbing  his  great  heart  out,  as  with  stooped  shoulders  and 
wrinkled  cheeks  and  hair  white  as  the  snow,  he  said,  "Wlio  will  take 
the  places  of  us  old  men  who  are  so  soon  to  drop  in  the  grave?"  Oh.  it 
was  a  new  appeal  and  the  night  wore  to  morning  before  one  lad  could 
get  away  from  that  great  appeal.  He  had  held  before  me  Christ's 
vision  of  a  lost  world  and  had  likewise  in  that  hour  set  before  me  the 
truth  that  the  sublimest  thing  under  the  whole  heaven  is  to  preach 
Christ's  gospel,  to  lift  up  lost  ones.  Here  is  the  test  and  measure  of  our 
power  to  be  a  blessing  to  this  world.  God's  plan  is  the  giving  of  life  for 
life.  Let  us  be  done  in  every  appeal  with  young  people ;  let  us  be  done 
with  every  appeal  to  the  easy  and  to  the  soft-going,  and  to  that  which  is 
enervating  and  luxurious.  Let  us  summon  them  to  difficulty  and  to  tasks 
enough  to  trj-  the  stoutest  heart  and  to  privations  and  to  sufferings  and 
to  separation  from  home,  to  the  highest  and  the  most  strenuous  and  the 


98  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

most  self-forgetting  in  the  whole  world.  That  is  the  appeal  that  shall 
link  their  lives  with  this  matchless  task;  just  that.  0  my  friends, 
when  we  pay  the  price  for  power  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  we  shall  cer- 
tainly have  it — when  we  pay  the  price. 

I  am  thinking  at  this  moment  of  a  scene  I  spoke  of  to  my  own  South- 
ern people  in  their  own  meeting  a  few  weeks  ago  and  I  speak  of  it  here. 
I  was  summoned  from  my  own  pastorate  to  a  little  church  in  the  eastern 
part  of  my  State  to  preach  a  dedicatory  sermon  for  that  church.  I  got 
there  Saturday  evening  and  met  the  officers  and  said  to  them,  ''What 
do  you  wish  of  me;  what  am  I  expected  to  do  here?"  And  they  set  be- 
fore me  in  very  clever  terms  the  task  before  me  on  the  following  mor- 
row. That  task  was  the  raising  of  $6,500  in  cash,  which  would  be  due 
on  Monday  in  order  to  meet  the  pressing  obligations  against  that  build- 
ing, and  that  was  to  be  raised  before  the  dedicatory  prayer  should  be 
offered.  I  said,  ''Where  is  the  $6,500  to  come  from,  brethren?"  And 
they  looked  at  one  another  and  then  looked  modestly  at  me  and  said, 
"By  a  very  great  effort  we  think  we  can  get  $500  of  it,  but  you  must  get 
out  of  the  town  the  other  $6,000.  We  have  done  our  best."  Clever  men 
these  trustees  and  deacons  are  sometimes,  wonderfully  clever  men — mar- 
velously  clever  men.  They  said,  "We  have  done  our  best."  "Well," 
I  said,  "brethren,  I  have  been  in  this  dedicatory  business  a  good  bit 
since  I  was  a  lad.  It  doesn  't  come  as  you  said.  If  we  get  the  $6,500,  it 
means  that  this  church  will  have  to  put  up  $6,000  of  it  and  maybe  by 
great  effort  we  can  get  $500  out  of  the  rest  of  the  town."  And  with 
long  faces  all  of  us  went  into  the  services  after  an  experience  like  that. 

I  preached  and  came  to  the  practical  matter  of  calling  for  that  $6,500, 
and  after  thirty  minutes  we  had  only  $3,000  of  it  provided  and  then 
there  was  a  dreadful  pause.  I  looked  and  said,  "Brethren,  I  am  your 
guest,  what  do  you  expect  me  to  do?  I  wish  I  had  the  other  $3,500; 
what  are  Ave  to  do?"  A  little  woman  back  there  with  her  big  bonnet 
hiding  her  face  for  the  most  part,  put  her  face  in  her  hands  and  after 
a  minute's  pause — it  seemed  an  hour — she  rose  up  and  said,  "May  I 
speak?"  and  I  said,  "Certainly,  my  sister,"  and  looking  past  me  to 
the  young  man  sitting  by  the  desk  who  had  taken  down  the  subscrip- 
tions, she  said,  "Charlie,  you  and  I  were  offered  $3,500  in  cash  yester- 
day for  our  little  cottage  for  which  we  have  striven  so  hard  and  which 
we  love  so  much  and  the  man  said  as  he  went  on  we  might  draw  on  him 
any  time  within  the  next  few  days.  Charlie,  this  is  Christ 's  house  and 
I  have  wondered  if  you  would  be  willing  for  us  to  finish  up  the  debt," 
and  he  answered  back  with  a  sob,  "Mary,  I  was  thinking  of  the  same 
thing;  w^e  will  finish  it." 

But  it  didn't  stop  there.  There  occurred  a  scene  that  beggared  all 
description.  Over  there  a  man  who  gave  $50  rose  up  with  a  sob  and 
said,  ' '  I  trifled  a  bit  ago ;  I  said  $50 ;  I  will  add  $450  more. ' '  Over  there 
a  w(5man  who  gave  $10,  laughing  while  she  gave  it,  rose  now  with  face 
covered  with  tears  saying,  "I  will  add  $90  to  mine."  Over  there  was  a 
lad  that  gave  $2.50.     He  smoked  that  much  from  Monday  till  Saturday; 


Tufsilay,  .Tun."  20.1  UFAitin*   OF   I'HOCEKIH  MIH.  W 

he  rose  with  a  sob  in  his  voice  and  said,  "I\Iake  mine  $97.50  more." 
And  faster  than  two  men  could  take  it  down  that  $3,500  and  more  was 
provided ;  nor  was  that  all.  Down  those  aisles  came  men  who  had  shot 
out  their  lips  in  scorn  against  the  church;  when  they  saw  that  scene, 
down  each  aisle  they  came  saying,  "Where  is  the  Saviour  and  where 
may  we  find  him?" 

''And  heaven  came  down  our  souls  to  greet. 
And   glory   crowned   the   Mercy   Seat." 

0  my  brothers,  as  preachers  and  teachers  in  every  relation  of  our  lives, 
let  us  go  from  this  iUliance  with  this  note,  the  call  of  God's  people 
young  and  old  to  give  Christ  their  best.     (Applause.) 
Hymn,  "My  Jesus,  I  love  thee." 

Chairman  :  The  statement  read  by  Mr.  Webb  was  in  the  form  of  a 
resolution  to  appoint  a  committee.  That  resolution  has  been  moved  and 
seconded;  I  take  it  that  you  are  prepared  to  vote  upon  this  resolution. 

Resolution  put  to  a  vote  of  the  audience  and  carried. 

Chairman:  The  chair  appoints  the  following  committee:  (See  page 
xvi.) 

Mr.  McConnell:  I  move  that  the  committee  be  asked  to  supply  any 
vacancies  that  may  occur,  on  their  own  initiative,  up  to  the  number  of 
twenty-five,  seeing  that  there  shall  be  some  regard  as  to  locality  in  the 
selection. 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  George  T.  Webb  and  carried. 

Chairman  :  I  appoint  H.  G.  Baldwin  to  receive  money  on  the  part  of 
the  committee. 

Chairman  :  We  have  heard  from  a  teacher  and  a  preacher  from 
Canada  and  the  United  States.  We  are  to  hear  from  one  who  is  a  great 
preacher  and  a  great  teacher,  whose  writings  are  read  wherever  English 
is  read.  We  will  not  speak  of  him  as  of  any  country  in  particular.  He 
represents  England  sometimes;  to-day  he  represents  the  whole  world. 
F.  B.  Meyer,  of  the  world,  and  of  the  hearts  of  all  of  us,  will  now  speak. 

Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer  was  received  with  enthusiasm  and  said:  Mr.  Chair- 
man, it  is  extremely  embarrassing  to  be  received  in  this  way,  and  to 
liavo  those  words  said.  I  always  tliouglit  Americans  were  exceedingly 
businesslike  and  brisk;  I  find  that  they  are  gifted  witli  great  imagina- 
tion. They  tell  me  you  are  a  Canadian,  my  friend  (to  the  chairman). 
There  is  a  great  reciprocity  between  these  two  great  countries.  It  seems 
to  me  Canada  is  catching  the  inspiration  of  the  idealism  of  America.  I 
am  also  embarrassed  because  nobody  has  appointed  me  a  subject.  I 
hardly  knew  whether  I  was  to  speak  about  young  people  or  to  them. 
Finally,  I  was  told  this  morning  T  might  catcli  up  anything  the  other 
speakers  said  and  add  to  it;  and  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  things 


100  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

that  my  old  friend  Dr.  Truett  had  said  would  enable  me  to  get  a  start 
anyway. 

There  are  many  kingdoms  in  the  world,  the  kingdom  of  athletics,  of 
mind,  of  money  and  of  science,  and  each  of  these  kingdoms  has  its  own 
special  honors  and  rewards  and  consciousness  of  power,  and  it  is  a  great 
thing  for  the  soul  to  be  accepted  as  a  citizen  of  any  great  kingdom  in 
Avhich  it  may  use  the  power  and  enjoy  and  employ  the  rewards.  For 
instance,  it  is  a  great  thing  for  a  young  man  to  become  a  king  in  the 
kingdom  of  athletics;  that  kingdom  has  its  honors  and  its  rewards  and 
its  sense  of  power.  And  what  is  true  of  that  kingdom  is  true  of  all  the 
kingdoms  I  have  named;  but  those  were  remarkable  words  that  Dr. 
Truett  uttered  when  he  said  we  must  be  prepared  to  pay  the  price  of 
power.  Take  the  kingdom  of  athletics;  a  man  may  well  desire  to  enter 
it  and  be  a  citizen  and  a  king,  but  before  he  can  he  must  do  violence  to 
his  love  of  ease,  to  his  selection  of  special  foods,  and  to  a  great  many 
delights  that  might  tempt  his  youth.  Only  so  can  he  enter  the  kingdom 
and  hold  its  power  and  presently  use  its  keys  to  open  it  to  others.  So  is 
it  with  the  millionaire;  he  must  be  prepared  to  do  violence  to  a  great 
many  things  that  other  men  live  for,  his  love  of  ease,  his  love  of  home; 
he  must  live  laborious  days  and  spend  sleepless  nights,  or  he  cannot 
enter  the  great  kingdom  of  wealth  with  its  reward  and  honor  and  sense 
of  power.  So  is  it  with  the  mighty  kingdom  of  the  intellect;  any  young 
man  or  woman  who  would  enter  that  kingdom  will  have  to  pay  the 
price  by  doing  violence  to  the  love  of  ease,  even  the  love  of  athletics, 
and  to  a  great  many  other  of  the  luxuries,  and  of  the  winsomenesses  of 
life.  You  always  must  pay  the  price  of  that  kingdom  to  which  you 
aspire.  You  must  go  through  its  narrow  and  strait  gate;  you  must  be 
prepared  to  do  violence  to  yourself,  so  much  so  that  people  may  come 
around  you  and  say  ''Spare  yourself,  this  is  too  gTeat  a  price  for  you 
to  pay;  spare  yourself,  this  shall  not  be  unto  thee." 

But  topping  all  these  kingdoms  which  I  have  named  there  is  another 
and  a  mightier  far,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  That  kingdom  also  has  its 
rewards  and  honors  to  offer  you  and  me,  this  afternoon;  the  one  thing 
that  that  Kingdom  of  Heaven  offers  to  us  is  the  prerogative,  the  unique 
prerogative,  of  spiritual  power.  There  is  power  for  the  athlete,  there  is 
power  for  the  millionaire,  there  is  power  for  the  intellectual  athlete,  the 
man  of  mind,  but  the  supreme  power  is  beyond  all  these  and  includes  all 
these,  the  power  of  the  spiritual  realm,  the  power  of  Jesus  and  his  apos- 
tles, the  power  of  St.  Bernard  and  St.  Francis,  the  power  of  Luther  and 
George  Watts,  the  power  of  the  Wesleys,  and  Whitefield,  the  power  of 
Finney  and  Spurgeon  the  mighty  power  of  the  spiritual  rule  which  is 
within  the  reach  of  every  man  and  woman  within  the  audience  of  my 
voice  to-day;  and  indeed  I  shall  have  spoken  amiss  if  I  fail  to  show 
before  you  what  life  may  become  which  has  allied  itself  with  that  power 
which  is  throbbing  through  the  universe  and  which  is  within  the  reach  of 
everj^  wing  of  faith  that  is  expanded  to  win,  to  extract  the  power  of  the 
unseen  and  eternal  world. 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  101 

You  may  wonder  why  just  now  I  used  that  word  ''wing";  I  will  tell 
you.  I  learned  a  parable  during  my  voyage  just  now  across  the  Atlantic, 
one  lovely  summer's  day.  The  sea  was  an  emerald  purple,  the  sky  was 
cerulean  blue,  the  air  was  soft  and  beautiful,  and  the  ship  must  have 
been  making  quite  twenty  miles  an  liour.  As  I  walked  to  and  fro  upon 
the  deck  my  attention  was  attracted  by  those  magnificent  seagulls — many 
of  them  I  should  think  would  have  measured  from  five  to  six  feet  from 
wing  tip  to  wing  tip — as  majestically  they  accompanied  the  ship,  pro- 
ceeding at  that  great  speed.  The  thing  that  struck  me  with  most  wonder 
was  that  they  never  moved  a  wing,  that  there  was  no  apparent  effort,  but 
calmly  and  majestically  they  made  their  glorious  flight  parallel  to  the 
progress  of  our  boat  without  heave  or  motion  of  the  wing.  As  I  stood  to 
contemplate  I  realized  that  there  was  pulling  at  them,  as  the  string 
pulls  at  a  boy's  kite,  the  great  and  mighty  force  of  gravitation,  which, 
had  they  yielded  to  it,  must  have  dragged  their  body  at  once  deep  down 
into  the  wave.  But  that  downward  force  was  counteracted  by  another 
force  which  their  wings  had  extracted  from  the  invisible  atmosphere, 
and  the  force  of  the  wing  was  transforming  the  downward  power  into 
a  forward  power,  and  I  realized  that  they  were  advancing  by  using  the 
power  which  otherwise  would  have  hurled  them  into  the  abyss.  And  as 
I  stood  there  realizing  that  parable  of  the  bird's  sensitive  wing  gather- 
ing from  the  impalpable  air,  the  air  in  which  floated  the  power  to  trans- 
form, I  learned  one  of  the  lessons  of  my  life,  and  I  saw  that  every  human 
life  is  exposed  to  the  downward  pull  of  some  temptation,  of  some  sus- 
ceptibility, by  something  by  which  they  might  suppose  would  have 
spoilt  and  injured  their  influence,  but  as  the  wing  of  faith  brings  into 
operation  other  unknown  forces  it  translates  into  advance  what  other- 
wise would  be  a  force  to  destroy. 

If  only  I  may  so  speak  to  you,  my  thoughts  will  lie  along  the  help  of 
youth,  will  lie  along  the  help  of  parentage.  I  hope  before  I  close,  if  I  do 
not  unduly  transgress,  to  show  how  it  lies  along  the  line  of  the  life  of  my 
brother  ministers.  It  seems  to  me  if  I  could  only  take  that  as  my  text 
to-day  and  join  it  with  my  friend's  words  about  the  price  you  pay  for 
power,  I  may  show  that  by  faith  you  may  take  the  power  which  is 
against  you  and  transform  it  into  a  power  which  is  for  you,  so  that  in- 
stead of  saying  with  Jacob,  "All  these  things  are  against  me,"  you  may 
cry  with  the  apostle,  "In  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquer- 
ors through  him  that  loved  us." 

Now,  see  how  this  applies  to  young  manhood,  and  ringing  through  my 
mind  to-day  is  that  wonderful  word  of  Christ's,  "The  kingdom  of 
heaven  suflfereth  violence  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force."  The  young 
manhood  wlin  are  here  to-day  must  use  violence  against  themselves  if 
they  would  win  the  spirit  power  of  which  we  speak.  And  you  remember 
in  the  same  chapter,  the  eleventh  of  Matthew,  our  Lord  gave  three  indi- 
cations of  what  he  meant:  There  w-as  first  the  reed  shaken  with  the  wind, 
and  then  the  soft  clothing  of  Herod's  court,  and  then  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  effeminate  priest  and  heroic  prophet,  and  he  said  in  each  of 


102  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

those  particulai's  a  man  must  learn  to  transform  the  forces  that  militate 
against  him  and  make  them  carrying  forces  by  which  he  will  win  the 
kingdom.  Take  first  the  young  men — and  I  suppose  young  men  include 
young  girls,  because  in  our  country  the  girls  are  beginning  to  learn  that 
they  must  no  longer  be  the  darlings  and  dolls  of  men  but  their  com- 
rades in  the  great  fight  of  life,  therefore  what  I  say  to  one  I  say  to  both 
— the  young  manhood  and  the  young  womanhood  of  our  churches  must 
do  violence  to  their  compliance  with  opinion,  that  worldly  opinion.  You 
know  exactly  how  the  reeds  appear  upon  the  lea  or  marsh  when  the 
autumn  wind  is  breathing  across  them  and  how  they  all  fall  in  the  same 
direction.  So  it  is  in  human  life  that  we  all  are  compliant  with  fashion 
and  human  opinion  and  take  the  way  of  the  crowd.  But  if  a  man  takes 
the  way  of  the  crowd  and  goes  with  the  crowd  he  will  cease  to  influence 
the  crowd.  If  John  the  Baptist  had  gone  with  the  crowd,  the  crowd  would 
never  have  come  to  him.  It  is  the  man  who  does  not  go  with  the  crowd 
to  whom  the  crowd  has  got  to  come  presently.  It  was  so  with  Luther 
when  he  stood  before  the  legate,  "I  can  do  no  otherwise,  God  help  me"; 
and  there  began  to  gather  around  him  that  phalanx  of  reformers  that 
made  the  Reformation  a  fact,  an  enduring  fact  in  European  history. 
And  you  remember  how  Bunyan  when  he  was  offered  freedom  if  he 
would  only  cease  to  preach,  said  that  he  would  rather  the  moss  should 
grow  upon  his  eyelids  than  that  he  should  purchase  liberty  at  so  con- 
temptible a  price  as  that.  And  to  Bunyan  has  come  as  you  heard  yes- 
terday the  undisputed  love  and  homage  of  all  Christendom.  So  I  say 
to  every  young  man  here  to-day,  there  would  have  to  be  made  up  in  your 
mind  a  resolute  stand  against  all  compliance  with  mere  worldly  custom 
and  habit;  and  that  is  why  I  am  so  proud  of  our  sacred  rite  of  believers' 
baptism.  It  is  an  individual  act,  it  is  the  great  act  of  an  individual  soul 
that  dares  to  stand  with  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  was  sent  without  the  camp, 
the  world  cast  him  out,  and  the  man  or  woman  who  comes  step  by  step 
down  into  the  baptistery  is  becoming  weak  with  Christ,  is  lying  in  the 
grave  with  Christ,  is  forfeiting  the  love  and  homage  of  mankind  for 
Christ's  sake.  It  is  the  baptized  church,  the  buried  church,  the  church 
that  dares  to  stand  with  Christ  outside  society,  which  is  going  to  com- 
mand and  rule  society  to-morrow.  Oh,  be  baptized  young  people !  I  have 
often  thought  if  I  were  thirty  or  forty  years  younger  r\vould  go 
through  the  world  baptizing  everybody  who  would  be  baptized  on  pro- 
fession of  faith,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  The  longer  I  live  the 
more  I  thank  God  that  he  has  committed  to  my  custodianship  in  some 
small  way,  this  sacred  rite.  They  went  from  Europe  to  Palestine  to  fight 
for  the  grave  of  Christ,  and  I  will  stand  as  a  crusader  to  fight  for  the 
burial,  the  grave,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Then  there  is  the  softness  of  the  royal  court.  No,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, see  to  it  that  you  do  not  place  your  trust  in  any  human  power. 
They  that  are  clad  in  soft  raiment  are  in  king's  courts.  You  and  I  do 
not  want  a  soft  job ;  let  us  therefore  stand  out  from  the  circumference 
of  human  power  and  let  us  dare  to  believe  that  power  comes  not  to  the 


Tuesday,  JuiK"  id.  I  liFA'Olih  OF  I'ROCEEDINOS.  103 

State  but  to  the  Cburcli.  I  like  what  my  brother,  the  first  speaker,  said 
just  now  when  he  described  that  little  church.  I  have  stood  in  St. 
Peter's,  I  have  looked  up  at  that  niisihty  dome  and  I  have  seen  around 
its  circle,  "Thou  art  Peter  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church 
and  the  jjates  of  hell  will  not  prevail  against  it."  But  I  have  felt  it  was 
resting  upon  Peter  and  there  was  very  little  of  the  Lord  Jesus  there; 
whereas  I  have  gone  into  some  little  primitive  Methodist  chapel  in  our 
country,  or  some  tiny  Baptist  conventicle  and  the  w'alls  have  been  white- 
washed, there  has  been  no  carpet,  no  linoleum  and  the  benches  have  been 
poor,  but  a  few  peasant  folk  dressed  in  the  pictures(iue  costume  of  long 
ago,  a  few  rustic  people  come  from  their  little  villages  to  worship  God 
according  to  their  conscience  in  spite  of  S(|uire  and  Parson;  and  as  they 
have  gathered  in  that  little  church  I  have  seen  around  those  white- 
washed walls  a  lustrous  handwriting  which  I  could  read,  "Wheresoever 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  Name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst 
of  them. ' '  And  where  Jesus  is,  there  is  the  Church  of  Christ.  I  don 't 
know  that  you  have  those  conditions  of  life,  but  I  have  often  said  to 
our  young  people,  "Dare  to  turn  your  back  upon  that  village  Episcopal 
church  and  turn  your  face  toward  that  little  church  and  dare  to  join 
yourself  in  membership  to  those  humble  folk  with  whom  Jesus  meets." 
I  know  that  your  conditions  of  life  are  so  different  that  what  I  say  in 
England  I  cannot  say  to  you,  but  I  always  say  to  girls  that  on  that  day 
when  they  are  queens  and  their  will  is  the  behest  of  all,  that  they  must 
not  take  the  innocent  youth  to  be  married  in  the  Episcopal  church,  al- 
though they  might  have  carriages  at  the  door  and  silks  and  satins  to 
adorn  the  wedding,  but  on  a  girl 's  queenly  day  she  must  be  proud  to 
stand  in  a  little  village  chapel  where  her  people  worship  God  and  she 
was  brought  up  as  a  child. 

There  is  one  thing  more  along  tluit  line;  we  are  to  do  violence  to  our 
love  of  compliance  and  our  reliance  upon  the  worldly  power,  and  we 
must  see  to  it  that  we  do  violence  to  our  natural  clinging  to  the  priest 
rather  than  to  the  prophet.  "What  went  ye  out  for  to  see?  A  pro- 
phet? Yea,  and  more  than  a  proi)het. "  Young  people,  there  are  two 
types  of  religion  in  the  world,  there  is  the  religion  of  the  priest  and  there 
is  the  religion  of  the  prophet.  The  priest  has  been  supposed  to  take  the 
sins  of  men  into  the  inner  shrine  of  God  and  dispose  of  them  there  in  his 
own  prayer  and  orison  and  suffering.  But  too  often  the  priest  has  been 
too  courteous,  too  often  he  has  condoned  and  minimized  sin,  too  often 
he  has  taken  money  for  doing  what  he  knew  he  could  not  do,  and  the 
priesthood  has  therefore  constantly  tended  to  effeminacy.  The  prophet 
is  a  man  who  comes  from  God  to  speak  God's  truth,  and  he  comes  in  con- 
tact with  these  petticoated  priestlings  and  turns  from  them  and  says  I 
have  nothing  for  you  but  the  truth  in  which  I  stand.  Not  tlie  religion 
of  form  but  of  power;  not  a  religion  of  ritual  and  the  priest  but  of  the 
direct  contact  with  Christ;  that,  young  people,  is  to  be  the  religion 
which  you  are  to  be  true  to.  Do  violence  to  yourself,  do  violence  to  your 
passions;  whatever  there  is  in  your  life  that  pulls  you  down,  do  violence 


104  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

to  it  and  say,  ''By  the  faith  of  Christ  I  am  going  to  transform  what 
would  depress  me  into  that  which  will  exalt  and  help  me." 

Turning  from  young  manhood  and  womanhood  for  a  moment  to  par- 
ents, does  not  that  same  law  follow?  I  want  to  see  the  children  reign.  I 
have  had  so  many  tussles  with  the  old  people  and  I  find  that  they  are  so 
indurated  sometimes  with  habit  it  takes  hours  to  turn  them  back  to 
God.  The  church  has  got  to  be  recruited  not  from  the  world  but  from 
her  own  family  life.  I  notice  in  England  they  sometimes  depreciate  the 
statistics  of  those  who  have  joined  from  the  Sunday-school  and  magnify 
the  result  of  those  who  have  joined  from  the  world.  I  say  it  is  a  false 
estimate,  and  the  true  estimate  would  be  to  lay  a  greater  stress  upon 
the  boys  and  girls  that  join  the  church  from  the  school  than  on  those 
that  join  from  the  world.  If  we  are  going  to  join  our  children  to  the 
church,  we  must,  dear  brothers  and  sisters,  fathers  and  moth- 
ers, if  we  are  going  to  deal  with  the  children  who  are 
of  the  kingdom,  of  such  is  the  kingdom,  you  fathers  and 
mothers  will  have  to  be  in  the  kingdom  yourselves  Jesus  said 
"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven."  The  worst  is  that  so  many  people  start  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  and  go  down  from  it  and  their  children  are  born  into  their 
home  in  the  kingdom  and  the  father  and  mother  have  left  the  kingdom 
and  the  children  start  higher  up  than  their  fathers  and  mothers  are,  and 
their  fathers  and  mothers  pull  them  down.  The  most  solemn  thing  to 
say  to  a  young  man  or  girl  when  they  are  being  wedded  is  to  say,  "See 
to  it, — in  God's  Providence  you  are  probably  going  to  deal  with  little 
children,  who  are,  so  to  speak,  of  the  kingdom — though  they  need  of 
course  the  new  birth,  but  their  temperament  and  simplicity  and  purity 
are  the  characteristics  that  come  to  us  through  the  new  birth — and  you 
must  be  born  and  you  must  be  in  the  kingdom  in  order  to  deal  with  these 
young  children."  Now,  I  want  to  make  a  point  of  that;  I  am  absolutely 
certain  that  some  of  you  fathers  and  mothers  if  you  love  your  children 
are  spoiling  them,  and  that  you  will  have  to  do  violence  to  a  good  many 
things  in  your  own  characters  if  you  are  going  to  bring  those  children 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  I  go  back  to  my  dear 
friend,  Mrs.  Whittemore.  I  met  her  only  a  week  ago  here — I  do  admire 
that  saintly  woman  who  I  suppose  has  done  more  for  fallen  girls  in  New 
York  than  anybody  living  except,  maybe,  the  Salvation  Army.  She  told 
me  again  the  story  which  I  had  heard  long  ago,  she  told  me  that  that 
night  ■  she  had  dressed  herself  for  a  fine  ball.  She  was  a  professing 
Christian  but  she  had  put  on  her  ball  dress  and  when  her  little  boy 
came  down  to  see  her  and  say  his  prayers  she  said,  "No,  mother  cannot 
hear  your  prayers  to-day,  run  away,  run  away,"  and  he  turned  sorrow- 
fully and  looked  at  her  and  said,  "Mother,  where  are  you  going?" 
"Oh,"  she  said,  "that  does  not  matter,  I  am  going  out,"  and  the  boy 
with  a  look  of  horror  on  his  little  face  turned  to  her  and  said,  "Mother, 
are  you  going  out  when  you  are  not  dressed?"  She  was  fully  dressed, 
people  say,  but  in  the  eye  of  the  pure  child  she  was  not  dressed,  and  she 


Tuesday,  June  2U.]  RECOIiD  OF  I'h'OCL'EDING^S.  105 

was  not  in  God's  sight,  I  believe.  She  went  to  the  ball;  she  danced  her 
last  dance  that  night ;  she  came  back  to  her  room,  took  off  her  ball  dress 
and  laid  it  upon  the  bed  and  said,  ''I  will  never  wear  that  again,  for  if 
that  soils  the  pure  mind  of  my  own  child  must  it  not  be  soiling  the  pure 
eyes  of  God's  angels  and  his  Son?"  She  knelt  down  by  its  side  and 
yielded  her  womanhood  to  Christ  and  Christ  accepted  it.  She  called  to- 
gether her  few  worldly  friends  and  they  were  amazed  when  she  said 
what  she  intended  to  do.  They  thought  that  she  had  become  crazy  but 
she  pursued  her  wonderful  career,  and  I  suppose  that  the  Door  of  Hope 
in  New  York  and  throughout  this  country  has  brought  more  of  God's 
fallen  angels  back  to  the  steps  of  rectitude  than  any  other  power  in  this 
country.    It  was  because  she  did  violence  to  herself. 

Now,  listen;  I  think,  probably  I  know,  there  has  been  a  debate 
whether  breeding,  or  heredity,  as  you  call  it,  or  training  is 
the  more  important;  and  I  dare  to  say  that  whilst  heredity  is 
greatly  important,  training  is  more  so,  and  that  the  good 
training  of  bad  blood  will  make  a  better  subject  of  the  law  than 
the  bad  training  of  good  blood.  But  the  mother  and  father 
who  are  going  to  use  the  power  of  God  for  training  will  have  to  do 
violence  to  themselves.  You  cannot  have  spiritual  power  without  doing 
violence  to  yourself,  and  it  is  because  fathers  and  mothers  in  the  present 
day  want  to  have  a  good  time  of  it,  as  they  thought  they  did  when  they 
were  courting,  and  they  want  to  go  to  all  manner  of  amusements  and 
worldly  show,  and  leave  their  children  to  nurse-maids,  leave  their  chil- 
dren to  second-hand  training,  it  is  for  that  reason  in  our  country  that 
so  many  of  the  children  of  godly  parents  are  going  wrong.  It  was  not 
so  with  my  mother.  Away  back  in  my  boyish  days  an  elegant  woman — 
my  father  and  she  had  wealth  at  their  command,  they  could  have  lived  in 
the  social  circle  and  in  the  front  line — but  so  far  as  I  can  recall  never 
from  my  earliest  memory  to  the  time  when  I  was  a  grown-up  boy  of 
twelve  did  my  mother  ever  go  out  at  night.  She  said  she  must  be  at 
home,  first  to  hear  my  prayer  as  a  child,  and  then  to  make  me  happy 
with  her  presence  until  I  went  to  my  bed.  And  it  is  the  doing  violence 
to  your  love  of  a  social  circle,  it  is  doing  violence  to  the  love  of  show 
and  ostentation  in  your  houses,  it  is  a  daring  to  be  frugal,  daring  to  be 
simple,  daring  to  maintain  a  humble  beautiful  home  without  ostenta- 
tious show,  which  is  the  best  atmosphere  for  the  creation  of  Christian 
child  life.  I  remember  how  it  was  with  my  father  and  mother.  So  soon 
as  Saturday  night  came  the  mother  went  all  around  the  house  with  us 
putting  away  the  toys  and  the  story  books  and  the  pictures,  everj-thing 
except  Noah's  ark  (laughter);  just  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, our  great  statesman,  who  always  removed  from  his  study  in  Down- 
ing Street  everything  that  savored  of  his  political  life  in  order  that  Sun- 
day morning  might  break  pure  and  unblemished,  so  my  mother  went 
around  that  house  and  put  away  ever\-thing  that  would  remind  us  of  the 
week  that  had  gone,  and  Sunday  broke  to  us  children  the  day  of  days,  the 
dav  we  looked  forward  to  and  counted  on  from  Mondav  morning.     But 


106  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAXCE. 

everything  was  reverent,  everything  was  beantiful,  everything  was  holy; 
it  was  because  she  took  care. 

Again  I  say,  and  I  leave  this  i3oint,  you  men  and  women  to  whom  God 
has  given  children,  almost  from  the  marriage  day  you  begin  to  think  of 
them,  there  are  months  of  prayer,  unspoken  prayer,  which  the  mother 
is  silently  praying  deep  down  in  her  breast.  Then  the  little  child  is 
turned  towards  Jesus  as  Hannah  turned  Samuel  towards  the  temple,  or 
Zacharias  turned  John  the  Baptist  towards  his  ministry.  Then  the  child 
receives  at  every  pore  the  reverence  and  holiness  of  a  Christian  home  in 
which  there  is  no  gossip,  there  is  no  criticism  of  other  people,  especially 
no  criticism  of  the  minister  or  the  choir.  Then  the  father  and  mother 
live  so  that  it  makes  me  think  of  that  student  at  Yale  whose  study  was 
covered  with  all  manner  of  pictures  of  actresses  and  also  of  various 
scenes  in  low  life,  and  someone  either  of  design  or  because  he  had  a 
secret  purpose,  brought  him  Hoffman's  head  of  Jesus,  and  this  picture 
was  put  up  upon  those  walls  and  in  a  week  when  he  came  in  he  found 
the  young  student  had  torn  down  all  the  other  things  because  he  said 
it  did  not  seem  nice  to  have  those  tawdry  things  alongside  of  that  work 
of  art.  He  meant  more  than  that  though  he  did  not  say  it.  He  meant 
there  was  something  in  that  ideal  face  that  made  other  things  impossi- 
ble. And  I  say  that  woman  who  is  listening  to  me  with  her  young  family 
around  her,  her  cheery  optimism,  her  purity,  her  happiness,  her  rever- 
ence to  God  and  that  strong  holy  man's  life,  these  are  to  be  the  pictures 
upon  the  walls  of  young  character  which  will  make  the  fallen  women  of 
the  street,  which  will  make  low  life,  impossible. 

But  you  can't  have  that  power  without  paying  for  it,  as  Dr.  Truett 
said.  I  have  spoken  of  the  young  man  doing  violence  to  himself,  I  have 
spoken  of  the  parent  doing  violence  to  himself;  I  want  to  speak  a  mo- 
ment, if  this  audience  will  allow  me,  to  my  brother  minister,  that  he 
also  will  have  to  do  violence  to  himself.  I  am  perfectly  sure,  my  broth- 
ers, that  you  and  I  have  been  trying  to  wield  the  power  of  intellect,  the 
power  of  the  essayist,  the  power  of  the  historian,  the  power  of  the  de- 
claimer,  the  orator,  and  very  often  the  political  orator,  and  as  we  have 
used  all  those  sources  of  power  Satan  has  laughed  at  us,  and  other  men 
who  have  given  up  their  attempt  of  the  study  of  these  special  sources 
of  power  have  easily  beaten  us.  But  when  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ 
says  I  am  willing  to  accept  literary  culture  to  a  point,  I  am  quite  pre- 
pared to  learn  the  gifts  of  speech  up  to  a  measure,  I  am  quite  willing  to 
be  au  fait  with  everything  that  is  going  on  around,  with  the  civilization 
of  my  time,  but  these  are  not  to  be  the  sovirces  of  my  power  in  the  world, 
but  I  am  going  to  grip  those  spiritual  forces  which  lie  latent  but  ready 
to  be  reached  in  the  Kingdom  of  God — when  a  man  lays  hold  upon  those 
spiritual  forces,  the  power  of  hell  cannot  stand  against  him.  I  am  ab- 
solutely sure  as  I  look  back  upon  my  life,  that  before  you  and  I  can 
wield  that  power  we  will  have  to  do  violence  to  a  good  many  things. 
You  will  have  to  do  violence  to  that  desire  you  have  to  be  a  leader  in  so- 
ciety; you  may  have  to  do  violence  to  your  desire  to  shine  as  a  great 


Tuesday,  June  :2(».J  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  107 

writer  or  a  great  thinker  or  a  great  political  leader.  A  man  cannot  have 
everything  and  he  has  to  count  in  lile  the  source  of  the  most  conspicuous 
power  that  he  can  wield;  and  I  say  it  will  pay  you  a  hundred  times  over 
to  forego  what  other  men  lay  such  stress  on,  in  order  to  do  violence  to 
yourself  to  lay  hold  on  the  spiritual  forces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Mind 
you,  these  make  no  noise. 

Coming  across  on  the  ''Campania,"  I  was  asked  to  sit  with 
the  captain  at  his  table  and  he  and  I  became  very  friendly 
and  he  told  me  one  day  of  the  loss  of  that  boat  on  the  Irish 
coast  a  little  Avhile  ago,  the  Cunai*der.  I  asked  him  how  it  was,  was  not 
there  a  lightship  there f  He  said,  Yes,  and  he  explained  that  somehow 
the  lightsliii)  was  not  at  work  that  day,  and  he  went  further  to  explain 
that  now  under  every  lightship  around  our  coasts,  and  I  dare  say^  around 
your  coasts,  deep  down  in  the  water  there  hangs  a  bell  which  is  made 
to  ring  by  electricity,  and  when  a  storm  is  raging  or  when  the  sky  is 
dark  and  starless  and  there  is  danger,  this  bell  is  set  tolling  deep,  deep, 
deep  down  in  the  ocean  depths;  and  the  captain  told  me  that  fourteen 
miles  away  from  that  lightship  you  may  hear  the  tolling  of  that  bell  by 
a  sort  of  phonic  apparatus  which  is  fitted  to  the  hull  this  side  and  that, 
so  that  you  can  tell  whether  the  danger  bell  is  on  this  side  or  on  that 
side  or  in  front.  And  I  said  I  would  like  to  hear  that  bell  ringing.  So  he 
took  me  up  to  the  bridge  and  I  stood  there  with  him  and  placed  the  au- 
ditory nerves,  so  to  speak,  against  my  ear  and  I  listened  but  I  could  hear 
no  bell,  and  he  said,  "You  may  be  thankful  that  you  hear  no  bell  for 
you  are  getting  out  upon  the  deep  sea."  Then  I  listened  more  intently 
and  I  said,  "I  think  I  hear,"  and  he  said,  ''Yes,  you  may  hear  the  silence 
of  mid-ocean";  and  I  listened  to  the  silence  of  mid-ocean  and  I  said  to 
myself,  Yes,  when  I  was  a  youngster  in  shore  I  heard  the  bells;  perhaps 
now  I  am  getting  on  mid-ocean  I  shall  hear  no  bell  but  the  silence  of  the 
great  deep  things  of  God. 

And  I  say  to  my  brothers  here,  don't  hang  around  the  shore 
where  clapping  meets  every  sentence,  where  the  newspapers 
wait  to  report  every  brilliant  passage,  where  on  the  morrow  after 
you  have  made  a  great  oration  even'body  is  talking  about  the  brilliance 
of  it,  though  no  one  for  his  life  can  remember  what  you  said.  Don't  lis- 
ten to  the  bells;  don't  listen  for  any  applause  of  men  or  women  or  crowd 
but  get  out,  brothers,  get  out  upon  the  deep  main,  the  emerald  purple 
ocean,  the  deep  things  of  God,  and  there  listen  for  and  receive  those 
eternal  forces  by  which  Jesus  Christ  at  Pentecost  endued  the  church 
and  which  are  within  the  reach  of  every  man  and  woman  who  will  seek 
them.  I  never  shall  forget  one  day  being  in  the  home  of  a  friend  of 
mine,  a  wealthy  man  who  was  studying  science.  It  was  some  time  ago — 
thank  God  I  have  grown  a  bit  since  then — but  I  was  fool  enough  to  say, 
"How  blue  the  ether  is  to-day,"  and  I  went  further  and  said,  "I  can- 
not understand  how  it  is  that  they  send  wireless  messages  through  the 
atmosphere;  how  they  do  it  I  don't  know."  My  friend  said,  "Ah,  I  see 
you  understand  the  difTerence  between  ether  and  atmosphere."     I  said, 


108  THE  BAPTI8T  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

*'I  don't  know  very  much  about  it."  ''Well,"  he  said,  ''I  thought  you 
did  not  from  the  way  you  talked.  If  you  will  come  with  me  to  my 
laboratory  I  will  show  you  ether.  Ether  is  going  to  be  the  driving 
force  of  the  next  century;  just  as  electricity  has  taken  the  place  of 
steam,  so  ether  is  going  to  take  the  place  of  electricity  if  only  we  know 
how  to  use  the  ether  of  which  you  spoke  so  lightly  just  now ;  for  ether  is 
not  blue."  I  said,  ''What  is  it?"  He  said,  "Come  and  see;  ether 
is  the  ocean  that  washes  the  shores  of  time  and  washes  the  foot  of 
the  throne  of  God.  Everything  soaks  in  ether  as  a  sponge  soaks  in  water; 
it  is  all  around  us  but  people  don't  know  it.  They  don't  see  it;  they 
don't  feel  it;  they  are  bathed  in  it  without  knowing  it;  but  it  is  the 
great  force  of  the  future."  So  he  took  me  into  his  laboratory;  it  was 
in  a  garden  and  I  climbed  steps  and  sat  there  and  he  did  two  or  three 
things,  I  don 't  know  what ;  and  almost  immediately  there  was  an  intense 
light,  so  intense  I  could  not  behold  it.  I  turned  my  eyes  away  dazzled. 
He  said,  "Yes,  that  is  the  intensest  light  known  on  earth  to-day  and 
when  once  we  rid  it  of  that  color  and  make  it  pure,  nothing  will  super- 
sede it  and  the  power  we  are  getting  hold  of  in  ether  is  not  only  illu- 
mination but  also  motive  power.  You  know  we  have  to  obey  it  and  we 
are  learning  how  to  obey  it  so  that  we  can  use  it."  I  said,  "Thank  you, 
good  afternoon,  I  want  to  get  alone."  I  felt  like  Xenophon's  soldiers 
when  after  passing  through  Asia  Minor  they  came  to  a  ridge  of  moun- 
tains and  said  "Thalassa,  thalassa,  the  sea,  the  sea,"  when  they  came 
on  the  edge  of  the  Black  Sea.  And  I  saw  the  sea.  I  leave  this  with  you ; 
just  as  ether  is  all  around  us  but  you  and  I  do  not  know  how  to  use  it,  but 
we  are  going  to  find  out,  the  scientists  will  find  out,  so  the  power  of  Pen- 
tecost is  all  around  about  vis,  but  we  have  got  to  learn  to  use  it.  You 
may  use  it  if  you  are  humble  enough  and  penitent  enough  and  faithful 
enough  and  if  you  make  Jesus  first  and  hide  yourself  under  him;  and  I 
tell  you  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  fathers  and  mothers,  you  will 
do  the  work  of  your  life,  not  by  money,  not  by  physical  force,  not  by  in- 
tellect, not  by  emotion,  but  by  contact  with  the  eternal  forces  which  are 
bringing  on  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth. 

Leads  in  prayer. 

Chairman  :  Jesus  has  spoken  to  us  by  the  way  and  our  hearts  have 
burned  within  us. 

Hymn,  "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name." 

The  session  closed  with  the  benediction  by  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer. 


FOURTH  SESSION. 

Tuesday  Evening,  June  20,  1911. 
Session  opened   at  7.45  with  a  devotional  service  led  by  Dr.  W.   J. 
McKay,  of  Toronto,  Canada. 

President  E.  Y.  Mullins  was  the  special  chairman  for  the  evening. 
Chairman  :  My  heai-t  is  so  full  of  the  inspiration  of  that  magnificent 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  109 

Baptist  manifesto  which  we  had  here  this  morning  from  Dr.  Clifford  that 
I  must  pause  for  a  moment  to  express  my  appreciation  of  that.  It  is 
worth  traveling  a  long,  long  way  and  surmounting  a  great  many  diflicul- 
ties  and  enduring  a  great  many  hardships  and  toils  and  sacrifices  to 
come  into  touch  with  the  electric  vitality  of  this  man  of  seventy-five, 
who  is  evidently  as  young  as  he  was  when  he  was  twenty-five  and  who  is 
obviously  the  incarnation  of  the  Baptist  spirit.  I  would  God  that  that 
address  might  be  printed  not  only  in  English  but  in  everj^  tongue  on 
earth;  I  hope  it  may  prove  true  that  somehow  it  shall  be  printed  in  Ja- 
panese and  Chinese  and  in  the  Hindu  tongue  and  in  all  the  nationalities 
of  Europe.  I  trust  it  may  be  printed  in  all  the  languages  of  all  the  peo- 
ple of  the  world,  because  I  know  that  to  some,  in  those  in  countries 
where  the  struggle  for  civil  and  religious  liberty  is  Avaxing  vigorous, 
where  men  are  beginning  to  dream  of  what  it  means  to  be  free  politically 
and  religiously,  that  address  will  come  like  an  echo  of  the  longings  of 
their  own  heart  and  they  will  welcome  it  as  the  response  to  their  own 
deepest  longings  and  desires;  and  others,  too,  those  who  are  buried  in 
ignorance  as  to  what  these  great  ideals  signify,  it  will  come  as  the  strain 
of  a  wondrously  sweet  music  floating  down  from  a  heaven  of  political 
freedom  and  civil  freedom  that  is  far,  far  away  in  the  dreamland  to 
them ;  but  nevertheless  it  will  have  the  effect  upon  them  of  all  the  visions 
and  all  the  strains  that  come  from  the  heavenly  world  into  human  hearts 
that  struggle  and  saci'ifiee  and  toil  for  the  great  things  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  I  trust  that  address,  so  full  of  the  spirit  that  this  body  stands 
for,  may  be  circulated  to  the  ends  of  the  world.  We  were  led  to  the 
mountain  top  and  all  the  nations  of  the  world  Avere  shown  unto  us  to-day, 
not  in  the  sense  in  which  the  tempter  tempted  the  Saviour  once  to  that 
effect,  but  rather  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  had  caught  the  spirit  of  the 
Saviour  himself  and  who  looked  through  his  eyes  on  the  nations  of  the 
earth  and  pointed  us  to  our  great  duty.  There  are  two  things  that  are 
necessary  to  a  great  life  in  the  individual  or  in  the  denomination,  a  vision 
and  a  task.  A  task  without  a  vision  makes  a  drudge;  a  vision  without 
a  task  makes  a  visionary;  a  vision  coupled  with  a  task  makes  a  hero 
and  an  apostle,  and  that  which  has  made  him  who  gave  us  this  mes- 
sage the  hero  and  the  apostle  that  he  is,  is  the  fact  that  he  has  had  the 
vision  and  the  task. 

What  is  the  task  of  the  Baptist  denomination?  Well,  we  can  define 
it  in  terms  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  those  are  as  small  terms  as  I 
would  select  to  define  it.  I  believe  that  no  denomination  on  earth  can 
survive  permanently  and  no  form  of  religious  life  can  survive  perman- 
ently unless  it  embodies  in  its  ideals  and  methods  those  ultimate  and 
fundamental  and  eternal  truths  which  Jesus  proclaimed  and  which  he 
employed  in  the  founding  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  What  are 
those  principles'?  I  cannot  of  course  outline  them  in  the  few  minutes  I 
have  left  of  my  ten,  but  I  can  speak  of  the  practical  task  and  that  is  what 
I  meant  when  I  spoke  of  the  vision  coupled  to  tlie  task.  The  chief  point 
in  the  life  and  struggle  of  any  religious  body  may  be  determined  by  the 


110  THE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

point  of  chief  assent.  There  are  several  types  of  Christianity  in  tjie 
world,  which  I  may  refer  to  in  a  moment  to  discriminate  them  from  ov;r 
type.  First,  I  shall  name  the  devotional  type. — I  won 't  call  names  of  de- 
nominations; they  will  occur  to  you — denominations  whose  life  revolves 
around  certain  great  Confessions  of  Faith,  and  there  are  many  splendid 
elements  of  power  in  these  denominations,  denominations  that  confine 
themselves  to  certain  humanly  stated  Confessions.  We  are  not  of  that 
denomination ;  we  have  never  been  of  that  type.  The  Confession  of 
Faith  Avhich  is  ours  is  that  referred  to  this  morning,  the  Scripture;  we 
have  never  revolved  around  any  Confession  of  Faith  that  men  have 
formulated.  Our  life  has  never  been  determined  chiefly  and  dominantly 
by  that  conception  of  our  mission. 

Another  type  I  might  call  the  hierarchical;  the  activity  of  the  body 
is  expended  in  the  task  of  building  up  a  great  system  of  priestliood,  and 
the  whole  life  of  the  body  is  bent  on  perfecting  and  making  efficient  for 
its  own  purpose  that  organization.  Another  type  is  the  sacramentarian, 
slightly  different  from  the  other  though  usually  associated  with  it,  in 
which  the  constant  energy  and  inevitable  results  are  the  interpretation  of 
religion  into  terms  of  sacrament,  reducing  the  facts  to  the  physical 
realm,  making  of  the  presence  of  Christ  a  fact  in  the  realm  of  matter 
rather  than  in  the  realm  of  spirit.  Another  type  still  is  the  rationalistic, 
where  the  mystical  element,  the  religious  element,  the  element  we  are 
going  to  discuss  to-night,  that  of  religious  life,  is  absent  and  the  aim  is 
to  build  logical  systems.     That  is  not  ours. 

What  is  the  task  for  which  we  are  set  ?  Not  to  build  creeds  or  hier- 
archies or  sacramental  systems  or  rationalistic  or  logical  systems,  but  to 
build  men,  and  there  we  bring  those  forces  of  the  kingdom  of  God  which 
are  necessary  to  building  of  character  and  adapt  them  to  the  task,  and 
carry  it  on  as  God  may  give  us  power  and  grace  and  skill  to  do  it.  But, 
of  course,  we  don't  build  men,  God  builds  them.  We  are  the  instru- 
ments in  his  hands.  He  uses  us  to  regenerate  men  and  the  vision  we 
have  is  regenerated  manhood  for  humanity,  for  the  world ;  and  for  this 
we  need  all  the  gifts  of  all  the  great  builders  the  world  has  even  seen. 
We  need  the  imagination  of  the  architect,  for  we  are  building  a  great 
structure  with  living  men  and  women  for  the  stones  in  the  walls :  we 
need  the  passion  of  the  poet  because  without  the  divine  fire  we  cannot 
fuse  the  elements  together;  we  need  the  patience  of  the  painter;  of  the 
sculi^tor,  Avho  works  his  masterpiece,  because  materials  we  deal  with  are 
refractory  and  yield  slowly  to  our  touch ;  we  need  the  inspiration  of  the 
great  composer,  because  unless  the  music  of  God  comes  through  our 
hearts  we  cannot  do  our  work  well;  we  need  the  sense  of  proportion  of 
the  landscape  gardener;  we  need  the  constructive  statesmanship  of  the 
great  statesmen  because  we  are  a  great  people  and  have  a  great  task 
and  have  a  great  territory  to  cover  with  our  task;  we  need  education,  be- 
cause we  can  only  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of  men  and  the  spirituality 
of  men.  We  have  but  two  weapons  with  which  to  fight  our  battles ;  one 
is  religion  and   the  other  is   common  sense — nothing  else.     We  cannot 


Tuesday,  .liiiu' liO.J  UECOUD  OF  I'KOCEEIUS GH.  Ill 

appeal  by  means  of  authority;  we  cannot  present  a  spectacle  of  outward 
iiraiideur;  we  cannot  woo  and  win  men  with  any  of  these  forbidden  lines 
of  power,  wo  can  only  touch  the  sprin.iis  of  action;  we  can  only  appeal 
to  the  truest  and  hiiiliest  in  men  and  brinu'  to  them  that  which  will  an- 
swer to  the  needs  of  their  sin  and  sufferings  and  lonsiings  for  redemption. 
We  have  none  of  the  outward  props  and  none  of  the  factitious  forms  and 
devices  and  employments  for  leadinj>'  men  unto  the  Kingdom  of  God.  We 
can  only  appeal  to  the  eternal  thoughts  in  men,  we  can  only  bring  the 
vision  of  righteousness  and  love,  we  can  only  bring  the  undying  power  of 
religion  itself.  We  are  stripped  of  every  other  means  of  bringing  saving 
truth  to  this  world. 

I  am  very  glad  indeed  io  present  the  next  speaker.  We  have  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  important  subjects  to-niglit  that  is  to  come  before 
this  Alliance — ''The  Vital  Experience  of  God.'''  The  first  speaker  is  a 
man  who  has  the  practical  every-day  task  of  the  pastorate,  who  has  come 
into  the  closer  relations  with  the  conditions  where  the  vital  experience 
of  God  is  needed.  The  second  speaker  of  the  evening  is  a  teacher  of  the 
New  Testament  in  English  and  Greek,  who  comes  into  vital  contact  with 
that  reservoir  of  spiritual  power  continually,  and  so  to-night  we  are  to 
bear  from  the  pastorate  and  then  we  are  to  hear  from  the  professor's 
chair.  It  gives  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  jaresent  to  this  audience 
Rev.  J.  Moffat  Logan,  of  Aecrington,  England,  who  will  now  address 
the  Alliance  on  the  subject,  "No  Authoritative  Creed."     (Applause.) 


VITAL  EXPERIENCE  OF  GOD,  NO  AUTHORITATIVE  CREED. 
By  Rev.  J.  MOFFAT  LOGAN. 

You  will  believe  me  when  I  say  that  I  felt  greatly  honored  when  I 
was  asked  to  take  a  part  in  these  great  gatherings.  Since  that  far-off 
day  when  my  mother  used  to  tell  me  all  that  she  had  ever  heai'd  or  read 
about  a  namesake  who  was  notable,  I  have  had  an  interest  in  the  coun- 
try which  was  almost  wise  enough  to  call  a  "Logan"  to  her  Presidential 
chair.  That  interest  deepened  when,  on  becoming  the  pastor  of  a  church 
beside  the  Mersey,  I  discovered  that  amongst  my  kindest  people  there 
were  some  who  looked  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  when  they  spoke  about 
their  Fatherland.  And  now,  that  several  of  my  relatives  and  one  of  my 
own  sons,  have  been  for  years  sworn  citizens  of  this  great  Common- 
wealth, you  will  not  wonder  that  I  say  "Amen,"  most  heartily,  to  every 
prayer  which  asks  Almighty  God  to  bless  the  English-speaking  world. 

Rut.  I  must  acknowledge  that  my  pleasure  in  being  asked  to  speak  to 
you  was  changed  into  dismay  as  T  perused  the  words  which  form  the 
background  of  tills  evening's  meeting.  As  I  meditated  over  the  phrase 
"Vital  Experience  of  God,"  I  felt  a  little  of  the  awe  which  must  have 
filled  the  soul  of  Moses  when  he  stood,  unshod,  before  the  Burning  Bush. 
It  seemed  to  me  as  though  each  letter  in  the  title  of  my  offered  tlieme 
was  all  ablaze  with  eyes  which  searched  and  saw  how  shallow  had  been 
any  claim  of  mine  to  piety. 

Then,  happily  for  me,  my  eyes  caught  sight  of  the  subordinate  expres- 


112  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

sion,  *'No  Authoritative  Creed"  and  I  felt  somewhat  comforted.  In 
these  three  words  there  is  a  note  of  challenge — almost  of  defiance.  They 
sound  together  like  a  call  to  battle  against  any  who  would  raise  up  artifi- 
cial barriers  around  the  ever-growing  human  soul.  And  it  relieved  me 
to  remember  that  my  business,  for  this  evening,  stood  related  to  the 
minor,  rather  than  the  major,  phrase. 

And  yet,  perhaps,  you  will  permit  me,  in  passing  to  the  lesser  through 
the  greater,  to  remind  myself  and  you  of  what  the  words  ''Vital  Experi- 
ence of  God"  imply.  They  imply  suggestive  things  concerning  God. 
They  imply  that  we  define  the  Being  of  the  Highest  in  the  terms  of  Per- 
sonality— in  the  terms  of  Personality  akin  to  that  which  we  impute  to 
one  another — in  the  terms  of  Personality  interpreted  to  mean  Self-Con- 
scious-Spirit. We  believe  Self-Conscious-Spirit  to  be  that  in  which  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  They  further  imply  that  we  define  the 
Character  of  the  Highest  in  the  terms  of  Christianity.  The  natural  sci- 
ences may  speak  to  us  of  the  Creator's  power  and  wisdom;  the  Hebrew 
records  may  tell  us  much  of  the  Creator's  skill  and  beauty,  but,  to  see 
His  holiness  and  love,  our  eyes  must  turn  to  Mary 's  Son.  We  believe  the 
Christ  of  the  Evangel  to  be  the  very  Image  of  the  God  of  the  Eternities. 
And  then,  they  imply  that  we  define  the  Providence  of  the  Highest  in  the 
terms  of  history.  He  who  inhabiteth  Eternity  cares  much  for  souls,  but 
more  for  men;  much  for  men,  but  more  for  Man;  much  for  Man,  but 
more  for  all  the  Universe.  It  seems  to  us  that  God  is  demonstrating  on 
this  planet,  once  for  all,  the  cruelty,  the  blasphemy,  and  the  futility  of 
sin. 

But  words  like  these,  "Vital  Experience  of  God,"  imply  suggestive 
things  concerning  God's  relations  to  ourselves.  God's  relations  to  His 
offspring  are  not  to  be  gathered  up  in  their  enjoyment  of  His  gifts.  The 
vision  which  Jacob  had  at  Bethel  was  not  the  noblest  possible  to  Man. 
Ladders,  and  angels  going  up  and  down  thereon  with  human  prayers  and 
earthly  blessings,  may  be  necessary  to  convince  us  mortals  that  the  gate  of 
Heaven  and  the  house  of  God  are  very  near.  But  gifts  have  been  known 
to  keep  the  givers  and  receivers  miles  away.  Neither  are  God 's  relations 
to  His  offspring  to  be  gathered  up  in  their  contemplation  of  His  attri- 
butes. The  vision  which  Isaiah  had  on  Zion  was  not  the  noblest  possible 
to  Man.  A  Temple  redolent  with  incense  and  smoke  and  sword-like  flames 
and  seraph's  chantings  may  have  been  desirable  when  the  death  of  a 
king  made  even  a  prophet  pessimistic.  But  the  contemplation  of  God's 
attributes  has  always  been  a  gulf  between  Jehovah  and  the  contemplating 
soul.  God 's  relations  to  His  offspring  have  their  climax  in  the  realization 
of  His  presence.  As  the  vision  of  Isaiah  transcended  that  of  Jacob  so  did 
the  vision  of  Abraham  transcend  the  vision  of  Isaiah.  Sweeter  than  the 
rustle  of  angelic  garments  and  the  whisperings  of  seraphs  was  the  music 
of  the  voice  which  said :  ' '  Fear  not  Abram :  I  am  thy  shield,  and  thy  ex- 
ceeding great  reward."  That  promise  was  prophetic  of  the  day  when 
God  Himself  would  come  into  the  consciousness  of  Man.  He  who  escapes 
the  senses  and  eludes  the  intellect  may  yet  be  apprehended  by  the  heart. 

And  certainly  the  words,  ''Vital  Experience  of  God"  imply  suggestive 
things  concerning  our  relationship  with  God.  They  imply  that  the  real- 
ized presence  of  God  is  life-bestowing.  The  old  conception  was  that  for 
a  man  to  touch  the  Deity  was  certain  death;  whereas  the  new  concep- 
tion is  that  a  man  is  surely  dead  until  the  Deity  is  touched.  Experience 
is  knowledge.     In  all  knowledge  there  is  contact.     And  contact  with  the 


Tiu'silay,  June  20. J  REVORD  OF  RR0VEEDINO8.  113 

Living  God  sends  life  iuto  the  huiuaii  soul.  A  man  thus  born  i'rom  above 
becomes,  by  virtue  of  that  birth,  a  member  of  the  order  lounded  by  the 
Christ.  The  Christ,  though  one  in  His  eternal  personality,  is  twain  in 
nature;  human  by  His  birth  from  Mary  and  divine  by  virtue  of  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  every  human  being  born  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
becomes  a  personal  partaker  of  the  nature  called  from  all  eternity  divine. 
The  life-divine  is  not  identical  in  kind  with  that  which  links  us  to  the 
animate  creation.  Nor  is  it  similar  in  essence  to  the  life  which  links  us 
to  the  sons  of  Adam  everywhere.  It  is  a  life  peculiar  to  the  saints  and 
■which  by  linking  them  to  God,  invests  them  with  the  dignity  of  sons. 

Not  only  so  but  these  words  of  ours  imply  that  the  realized  presence  of 
God  is  life-sustaining.  Its  earliest  fruit  is  faith.  The  once-born  can 
infer,  have  moral  intuition  and  assent  to  oracles,  but  then  the  twice-born 
can  perceive  what  lies  beyond  the  reach  of  reason,  hearts  and  conscience, 
and  are  so  delivered  from  uncertainty.  Faith  is  belief  made  active  by 
vitality.  The  second  fruit  is  fellowship.  In  ordinary  times  this  fellow- 
ship means  peace.  In  times  of  need  this  fellowship  is  prayer.  And  when 
joy  visits  us  this  fellowship  is  known  as  praise.  And  then  the  fruitage 
of  Fidelity  is  borne.  ''If  we  say  that  we  have  fellowship  with  Him  and 
walk  in  darkness,  we  lie  and  do  not  the  truth."  "He  that  abideth  in 
Him  w'ill  walk  even  as  He  walked."  "He  that  sinneth  hath  not  seen  Him 
neither  known  Him."  The  heavenly  life  produces  faith  and  leads  to 
fellowship  and  makes  fidelitj'  inevitable,  and  these,  reacting  on  the  life 
from  Heaven,  makes  it  ever  an  increasing  power. 

And  then  our  words  imply  that  the  realized  presence  of  God  is  life- 
transfiguring.  We  are  surely  furnished  now  with  our  controversies  as  to 
the  content  of  the  words  "Eternal  Life."  We  ought  to  have  remembered 
from  the  beginning  that  our  Master  had  defined  them  once  for  all.  How 
small  notions  of  it  look  beside  the  word  ' '  This  is  life  eternal  to  know 
Thee,  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  Eter- 
nal life  connotes  everlasting  existence  but  everlasting  existence  does  not 
contain  eternal  life.  Eternal  life  connotes  everlasting  happiness,  but  ever- 
lasting happiness  does  not  contain  etei-nal  life.  Eternal  lite  has  its  only 
sjnonym  in  everlasting  blessedness — unbroken  conscious  contact  with  the 
Father  through  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son.  That  our  life  will  last 
forever  is  a  little  thing,  but  that  it  will  become  more  luminous  forever  is 
a  gospel  to  be  welcomed  with  a  cheer.  The  symbol  therefore  of  our  her- 
itage is  not  a  ceaselessly  extending  line  but  a  ceaselessly  expanding  cir- 
cle and,  as  its  ever-receding  circumference  encloses  more  and  more  of  the 
experience  of  God,  we  know  how  vital  is  the  great  reality  which  saints 
call  Heaven.  To  every  one,  to  whom  has  come  a  share  in  the  vital  ex- 
perience of  God,  has  also  come  the  fulfilment  of  the  Avords  of  Christ.  "At 
that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  yc  in  Jle  and  I  in 
you."     To  them  Agnosticism  is  a  disappearing  quantity. 

And  noAv  remembering  tliat  the  great  reality  covered  by  the  phrase 
"Vital  Experience  of  God"  is,  by  assumption,  co-extensive  with  the  Bap- 
tist world  let  us  turn  to  the  subordinate  expression,  "No  Authoritative 
Creed."  Naturally,  I  am  anxious  to  convey  exactly  what  we  think  on 
this  particular  and  so,  perhaps,  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  proceed  at  a 
pace  which  may  prove  trying  to  the  patience  of  our  younger  friends.  My 
ecclesiastical  fathers  used  to  "fence  the  table"  in  my  early  days  and  so 
I  shall  attempt — but  not  in  length — to  imitate  them  here. 

We  are  not  at  all  afraid  of  this  word  "Authoritative,"  and  therefore 
8 


114  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

I  must  mention  some  of  the  things  which  we  do  not  mean  when  we  use 
this  phrase.  When  we  say  "No  Authoritative  Creed"  we  do  not  mean 
"No  Authoritative  Book."  Not  in  the  year  1911,  at  any  rate,  shall  we, 
as  Baptists,  apologize  for  the  fact  that  we  have  amongst  us  an  authorita- 
tive book.  We  are  not  entirely  iguorant  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East 
nor  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  West  and  yet  we  say  of  the  Bible  that  it 
is  not  simply  the  noblest  of  its  kind  but  that  it  constitutes  a  kind  of 
which  it  is  the  only  specimen.  We  believe  that  the  Bible  is  to  the  theo- 
logians what  nature  is  to  the  scientist,  and  when  anybody  puts  to  us  the 
ancient  question,  "What  is  truth?"  we  answer,  "That  which  the  Scrip- 
ture as  a  wdiole  proclaims  in  the  hearing  of  the  world. ' ' 

Then  when  we  say  "No  Authoritative  Creed"  we  do  not  mean  "No  Au- 
thoritative King."  No  one  at  all  acquainted  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Bible  will  affirm  that  our  acceptance  of  it  as  the  record  of  Jehovah's  rev- 
elation of  Himself  to  man  compels  us  to  accept  as  final  for  ourselves 
whatever  lies  between  its  alpha  and  its  omega.  All  the  writers  who 
composed  this  Book  assent  adoringly  to  the  Eternal  father's  cry,  "This 
is  my  beloved  Son,  hear  ye  Him."  He,  only,  is  our  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
King  and  only  that  which  appertains  to  Him  is  binding  on  our  souls 
to-day. 

And  when  we  say  "No  Authoritative  Creed"  we  do  not  mean  "No  Au- 
thoritative Voice."  Just  because  it  is  a  Book  Avritten  through  the  ages 
and  completed  centuries  ago  the  Bible  stands  in  need  of  an  interpreter. 
After  the  reason  has  done  her  best  along  the  line  of  criticism  and  after 
the  church  has  done  her  best  along  the  line  of  testimony,  Ave  must  listen 
for  the  whispers  of  His  voice  Avho  is  the  Spirit  of  this  wondrous  library. 
And  whatsoever  the  Voice,  quoting  from  the  Book,  edvices  from  the  things 
belonging  to  the  King,  possesses  for  us  Baptists,  in  the  realms  of  faith 
and  conduct,  absolute  authority. 

Nor  are  we  any  more  afraid  of  this  word  ' '  Creed ' '  although  once  more 
some  reservations  must  be  made.  This  subordinate  expression  does  not 
read  "No  Fiduciary  Creed."  As  those  who  have  had  to  struggle  through 
to  oiir  position  we  have  rather  a  contempt  for  anybody  who  through 
mental  indolence  or  moral  cowardice  refuses  to  confront  the  facts  of  his 
religious  life  and  think  them  out — thus  raising  in  his  mind  an  ordered  ed- 
ifice of  truth.  A  creedless  saint  is  at  the  mercy  of  his  sentiments.  A 
creedless  teacher  is  a  contradiction  in  so  many  terms.  And  to  trust  a 
congregation  to  a  creedless  pastor  were  like  engaging  a  poet  rather  than 
a  pilot  to  conduct  a  vessel  out  to  sea.  A  creedless  faith  is  like  a  spineless 
form. 

Then  this  subordinate  expression  does  not  read  "No  Proprietary 
Creed."  The  dead  hand  sometimes  proves  a  paralyzing  power  and  yet 
there  is  another  hand  more  vital  but  less  clean.  It  may  seem  very  beau- 
tiful and  pious  to  launch  institutions,  as  the  Pagans  used  to  launch  the 
little  ships  devoted  to  the  gods,  devoid  of  guarantees,  but  such  properties 
not  seldom  fall  into  the  grasp  of  those  whose  teaching  contradicts  the 
views  for  which  the  founders  lived  and  would  as  willingly  have  died.  The 
generous  dead  have  rights  which  the  living  ought  in  honor  to  maintain 
and  those  who  use  property  for  purposes  alien  in  spirit  to  the  purposes 
for  which  that  property  was  given — bring  a  scandal  on  the  Christian 
name. 

Least  of  all  does  this  subordinate  expression  read  "No  Declaratory 
Creed."     A  creed  is  such  that  it  requires  the  open  air.     The  individual 


Tufsihiy,  Jiim' 20.J  UEl'Olil)  Of  I'li'OCJJlJJUXGS.  115 

believer  ouybt  always  to  be  ready,  i,  e.,  able  as  well  as  willing,  to  give  a 
reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him.  Each  great  denomination  owes  it  to 
hersister  churches  to  proclaim  Jrom  time  to  time — as  we  ourselves  did  in 
1!)05  under  tlie  leadership  of  one  who  is  surely  with  us  even  now — what 
slie  esteems  to  be  tlie  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  faith.  And  Christen- 
dom, as  a  whole,  owes  it  to  the  world  to  set  forth  most  clearly  what  is 
of  the  essence  of  the  faith  wliich  saves.  In  the  wisdom  of  God,  our  con- 
troversies are  concentrating  toward  that  issue  and,  when  it  comes  to  pass, 
the  children  of  the  world  will  doubtless  say,  "Come,  and  let  us  go  up  to 
the  mountain  of  tlie  Lord  and  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob:  and  He 
will  teach  us  of  His  ways  and  we  will  walk  in  His  paths." 

After  all  this  fencing  let  me  frankly  state  that  when  we  speak  of  ''No 
Authoritative  Creed"  we  mean,  in  the  first  place,  ''No  scheme  of  defini- 
tions to  be  placed  as  a  threshold  over  w'hich  a  man  must  pass  in  order 
to  become  a  member  of  a  Baptist  church."  I  know  that  it  has  been  the 
custom  in  some  quarters  to  call  upon  the  candidate  to  state  his  views 
upon  the  i'undamentals  of  the  Faith.  I  also  bear  glad  witness  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  friends  who  entered  Baptist  churches  in  this 
fashion  have  become  remarkable  for  grace  and  usefulness.  But  is  it 
not  the  fact  that  such  were  all  right  anyway;  and  that  what  of  those  who, 
fearful  of  tliis  ordeal,  hung  back  amongst  the  dangers  of  the  world?  We 
agree  that  a  Baptist  church  ought  never  to  open  her  doors  to  anyone  who 
does  not,  obviously,  share  the  vital  experience  of  God :  we  are  certain 
that  she  will  be  wise  if  she  onl}'  suffers  those  to  enter  who  entirely  sj'm- 
patliize  with  that  for  which  she  stands  apart  from  all  her  fellows;  but, 
tliese  things  given  we  most  strongly  deprecate  the  application  of  a 
special  creedal  terminology  to  anyone  who  wishes  to  become  enrolled  be- 
neath the  Baptist  flag. 

Then,  in  the  second  place,  we  frankly  state  that  when  we  speak  of  "No 
Authoritative  Creed"  we  mean  "No  scheme  of  definition  to  be  used  as  a 
weight  against  which  any  person  must  be  tried  who  would  become  a  stu- 
dent in  a  Baptist  college."  There  are  colleges  in  the  old  countiy — I 
shall  not  say  Baptist  colleges — where  such  a  weighing  process  is  con- 
ducted, tongue  in  cheek.  The  assent  vouchsafed  to  the  submitted  creed 
is  genei-ally  Avarra  or  cold  according  to  the  ignorance  or  knowledge  of  the 
would-be  minister.  But,  as  a  rule,  they  atone  for  the  length  of  the  creed 
with  which  they  enter  by  the  brevity  of  that  with  wdiich  they  say  "good- 
bye." "We  grant,  of  course,  that  to  an  ample  share  in  the  vital  experi- 
ence of  God  and  to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  an  enthusiastic  devotion  to 
the  Baptist  point  of  view  the  would-be  student  ought  to  show  clear  proof 
of  pastoral  potentialities;  but,  given  these,  Ave  should  abstain,  especially 
in  days  like  ours,  from  asking  liis  assent  to  detailed  creedal  formulae. 

And  then,  in  the  third  place,  we,  with  special  frankness  state  that 
when  we  speak  of  "No  Authoritative  Creed"  Ave  mean  "No  scheme  of 
definition  to  be  erected  as  a  standard  unto  which  an  individual  must 
conform  Avho  Avould  remain  a  leader  of  a  Baptist  commouAvealth."  We 
ahvays  expect  and  we  almost  ahvays  get  in  our  Baptist  leaders,  whether 
they  be  preacliers,  professors,  or  presidents,  men  of  eharactei*,  Avho  know 
the  Lord  and  love  the  things  for  Avhich  the  name  of  Baptist  stands;  we 
should  deeply  mourn  the  forging  of  a  verbal  instrument  by  wliich  they 
might  be  harassed  in  the  Avork  committed  to  their  care.  Such  a  thing 
would  prove  as  harmful  as  it  is  unnecessary.  We  are  a  community  of 
baptized  belieA'ers.     And  latent  in  that  fact  our  safeguards  lie.     Come 


116  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

now  and  let  us  reason  together  on  this  point.  We  admit  that  it  is  pos- 
sible for  men  to  continue  in  the  teaching  and  the  practice  of  believers' 
baptism  and  yet  be  destitute  of  any  share  in  the  vital  experience  of  God. 
We  also  admit  that  it  is  possible  for  men  who  have  a  share  in  the  vital 
experience  of  God  to  reach  conclusions  as  to  believers'  baptism,  which 
would  make  their  continued  presence  in  our  midst  anomalous.  But  we 
deny  that  it  is  possible  for  men,  whose  vital  experience  of  God  is  up  to 
date  and  who  continue  in  the  teaching  and  the  practice  of  believers'  bap- 
tism, to  wander  permanently  from  the  central  verities  of  Christianity. 
Should  an  apparent  heretic  arise  amongst  us,  he  will  soon  discover  either 
an  obvious  lack  of  spirituality  or  a  desire  to  minimize  the  ordinance  for 
which  we  stand.  The  very  worst  thing  to  do  with  such  a  brother  is  to 
make  him  famous,  with  sensation-mongers,  by  endeavoring  to  oust  him 
from  the  Baptist  fold.  Let  him  severely  alone  and  he  will  either  come 
back  or  get  out,  before  many  years  are  gone.  If  you  should  ever  find  a 
spiritually-minded  and  enthusiastic  Baptist  leader  who  is  anything  but 
orthodox  I  trust  that  you  will  capture  him  and  show  him  as  a  freak  of 
grace. 

Now,  if  we  are  asked  to  give  our  reasons  for  this  triple  negative  we 
have  them  ready.  It  is  uttered  in  the  name  of  Bible  Truth.  Although 
rejoicing  to  be  called  ''the  People  of  the  Book"  we  are  very  far  indeed 
from  thinking  that  the  last  amongst  the  Bible  verities  has  been  perceived. 
That  was  1620  and  this  is  1911,  but  we  are  still  very  confident  that  the 
Lord  has  much  more  Truth  and  Light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  His  Holy 
Word.  And  we  would  encourage  all  the  students,  in  our  midst,  to  pre- 
pare their  spirits  for  the  larger  vision  and  would  also — a  much  harder 
task — prepare  ourselves  to  listen  to  their  words  when  they  come  amongst 
us  light  arrayed.  The  liberty  that  we  would  give  is  due  entirely  to  the 
confidence  which  we  possess.  We  are  confident  that  fair  inquiry  will  but 
make  more  evident  the  great  rock-facts,  that  the  Bible  is  the  centre  of 
God's  revelations,  that  the  gospel  is  the  centre  of  the  Bible,  and  that  the 
centre  of  the  gospel  is  the  Cross  of  Christ.  But  we  are  also  confident 
that  the  implications  of  such  things  are  infinite  and  we  desire  to  see  the 
Bible  searched,  expounded,  and  especially,  applied.  There  is  little  fear 
that  we  shall  ever  treat  our  home-grown  seers  as  oracles  whose  words 
must  be  received  unquestioningly.  We  shall  heckle  them,  no  doubt  con- 
tradict them,  when  they  dare  to  differ  from  ourselves,  and  make  them 
prove  whatever  they  advance,  but  we  shall  not  seek  to  drive  them  from 
our  midst  because  they  have  been  able  to  transcend  our  limits.  Men 
whose  experience  of  God  is  vital  enough  to  keep  them  loyal  to  the  least 
of  Christ's  commandments  can  be  trusted  with  the  largest  liberty. 

Then  our  negative  is  uttered  in  the  name  of  Mental  Honesty.  We  dis- 
tinguish, of  course,  between  honesty  of  act  and  honesty  of  speech  on  the 
one  hand  and  on  the  other  hand  between  honesty  of  speech  and  honesty 
of  thought.  A  man  dishonest  in  act  is  a  man  who  either  takes  or  keeps 
what  he  knows  to  be  another's.  A  man  dishonest  in  speech  is  a  man  who 
either  says  or  implies  what  he  knows  to  be  untrue.  And  a  man  dishonest 
in  thought  is  a  man  who  either  comes  to  or  remains  within  conclusions 
which  he  knows  to  be  unwarranted.  Now  will  anyone  who  knows  even  a 
little  about  the  matter  say  that  the  creeds  of  Christendom  have  never 
been  the  enemies  of  mental  honesty?  Eun  your  eye  along  the  statements 
in  the  ''Apostles"  the  "Nicene"  the  "Athanasian"  creed  and  recollect 
the  writings  of  the  men  who  solemnly  subscribed  to  these  great  documents ! 


luesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  PROC'IJEDIXGS.  117 

Refresh  your  knowledge  of  "The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith," 
''Tlie  Thirty-nine  Articles"  and  ''The  Bases  of  Methodism"  and  remind 
yourselves  ol'  wliat  you  know  of  the  general  thinking  of  many  of  the  men 
who  practically  signed  these  stamlards.  Refuse  to  blind  yourselves  to 
the  moral  effect  of  "mental  reservations,"  "general  senses,"  and  "at- 
tempt to  harmonize  the  contradictory"  and  then  retuni  to  us  an  answer 
to  this  question,  "Will  you  ever  temi)t  your  children  to  erect  their  tents 
in  such  a  wilderness?"  We  are  not  contemptuous,  as  we  have  shown,  of 
creeds.  We  look  upon  them  as  the  work  of  intellectual  giants  who  were 
seeking  to  erect  great  walls  between  the  citadel  of  truth  and  the  sur- 
rounding floods  of  error.  We  admit  that  every  student  of  theology 
should  know  them  well  and  understand  the  part  which  they  have  played 
in  the  development  of  Christian  thought,  but,  when  it  comes  to  giving 
an  assent  to  aged  symbols,  we  declare  that  such  should  never  be  required 
from  living,  honest  men. 

And  then  our  negative  is  uttered  in  the  name  of  Christian  love.  There 
is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  when  the  Twice-born  hear  the  Truth, 
proclaimed  from  the  view-point  of  the  speaker's  spiritual  experience, 
they  lovingly  agree  together  and  are  richly  profited.  But  there  is  even 
more  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  even  when  the  Twice-born  hear  the 
Truth  expounded  from  the  standpoint  of  the  speaker's  intellectual  defini- 
tions, they  commence  to  fall  asunder  into  disputatious  groups.  In  the  one 
case  the  truth  of  God  was  heard  most  clearly  through  the  voice  of  man, 
but  in  the  other  case  the  voice  of  man  was  heard  too  loudly  through  the 
truth  of  God.  The  attempt  to  impose  the  findings  of  some  master-minds 
upon  the  intellects  of  others  has  divided  households,  split  communities, 
and  led  to  international  hostilities.  The  authoritative  creeds  of  bygone 
times  have  all  been  instruments  of  cruelty.  As  we  see  the  Great  Shep- 
herd standing  sorely  wounded  in  the  habitation  of  His  friends  we  are  in- 
deed inclined  to  cry,  "0  Theology,  what  crimes  have  been  committed  in 
thy  name!"  The  reunion  of  Christendom  will  never  even  grow  into  a 
possibility'  until  the  great  authoritative  creeds  have  been  reduced  to  the 
level  of  provisional  hypotheses.  The  sons  of  the  Eternal,  with  their  unc- 
tion from  the  Holy  One,  must  all  be  set  at  liberty  to  roam  at  will  through 
every  province  of  the  Word  of  God.  We,  at  least,  will  surely  never  yield 
to  the  temptation,  which  mistaken  earnestness  makes  urgent  now  and 
then,  to  add  another  to  the  creeds  on  which  the  Lord  Christ  has  been 
crucified. 

And  now  if  I  may  in  closing  venture  to  be  personal  I  shall  confess 
that  my  experience  has  not  been  of  a  character  to  make  me  long  for  an 
authoritntivp  creed.  I  am  thinking  now  of  one  of  my  own  age  who  was 
cradled  in  the  old  Free  Church  of  Scotland  and  who  spent  his  earliest 
conscious  moments  in  and  around  a  certain  Glasgow  church.  At  home 
the  first  thing  that  he  saw  on  waking  was  a  portrait  of  the  celebrated 
Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  heroes  of  his  boyhood  were  the  saints  of  the  Dis- 
ruption. Ho  always  knew  that  he  revered  the  Free  Church  Ministry-  and 
now  he  knows  that  in  a  sort  of  solemn  way  he  enjoyed  the  Free  Church 
services.  Of  course  he  knew  nothing  at  all  in  those  days  of  the  Free 
Church  creed  and  in  his  folly  he  imagined  that  the  Free  Church  had  be- 
come entitled  to  that  name  because  she  was  the  church  above  all  others 
where  the  gospel  of  the  blessed  God  was  preached  as  an  evangel  of  free 
grace  to  everv  man. 

He  is  never  likely  to  forget  the  morning  when,  as  a  hapi)v,  careless 


118  THE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

youth,  he  passed  a  group  of  controversialists  and  heard  one  say,  "The 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  teaches  that,  by  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  mani- 
festation of  His  glory,  some  men  and  angels  are  predestinated  unto  ever- 
lasting life  and  others  foreordained  to  everlasting  death. ' '  This  awful 
sentence  arrested  the  passing  youth  and  drawing  nearer  he  said:  ''I  trust 
that  you  will  pardon  me,  but  I  cannot  help  saying  that  I  have  attended 
the  Free  Church  all  my  days  and  I  have  never  heard  that  doctrine  taught 
at  any  time. ' '  This  was  the  initiation  of  a  long  appeal  to  the  standard  of 
the  Free  Church,  notably,  "The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith"  and 
the  young  interrupter  soon  discovered  that  language  can  be  used  in  one 
sense  from  the  pulpit  and  understood  in  quite  another  by  the  pew.  Con- 
scious of  his  defeat  in  this  particular,  the  lad,  no  longer  careless  and  de- 
cidedly unhappy,  said  with  boldness,  "If  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith  attributes  partiality  to  God  it  contradicts  the  Scriptures."  But, 
alas,  his  friend  knew  more  than  he,  just  then,  about  the  letter  of  the 
Word  and  marshalled  the  reported  proofs  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  drive  his 
young  opponent  from  this  portion,  also,  of  the  field.  "Then,"  said  the 
stripling  in  most  deadly  earnest  now,  "if  the  Bible  teaches  such  a  thing 
as  that  the  Bible  is  not  true,"  and  emerging,  consciously  worsted  and 
somewhat  embittered  but  intellectually  cjuickened  from  his  first  theo- 
logical controversy,  he,  in  the  name  of  self-evident  religious  truth,  went 
forth  into  what  his  sorrowing  people  called  ' '  the  wilderness  of  infidelity. ' ' 

For  many  days  "Iconoclast"  had  no  more  ardent  follower  and  the 
"National  Eeformer"  no  more  ardent  reader,  although  one  visit  to  a 
Secularistic  Hall  was  as  much  as  he  could  stand.  Then  the  Lord,  who 
knows  the  wayward  heart,  had  pity  on  the  youthful  rebel  and  led  him  by 
apparent  accident  into  a  great  tent  meeting,  organized  in  connection  with 
Moody  and  Sankey  's  earliest  visit  to  the  other  side.  Then  a  Free  Church 
minister- — Dr.  Andrew  Bonar — told  the  story  of  a  certain  green  hill  far 
away;  then  a  Free  Church  soloist — the  white-haired  Mr.  Thomas — sang 
the  liymn  called  Substitution,  and  then  the  Christ  of  God  revealed  Him- 
self convincingly  to  one  at  least,  who  had  wandered  from  the  Free 
Church  fold.  As  the  so-called  sceptic,  with  a  song  in  his  heart,  went 
home  that  night  beneath  a  cloudless  sky,  he  realized  that  doubt  concern- 
ing Jesus  Christ  at  any  rate  had  passed  away. 

It  was  only  natural  that  he  should  wish  to  work  for  Christ  amongst  his 
Free  Church  friends  and  that  they  should  welcome  him  as  a  brand  pluck- 
ed from  the  burning.  He  at  once  joined  a  Free  Church  Evangelistic  As- 
sociation and  in  the  course  of  time  was  asked  to  address  a  congregation 
in  a  Free  Church  hall.  His  text  on  that  occasion  was,  of  course,  John  3 : 
16,  and  you  can  easily  imagine  hoAv  he  revelled  in  its  atmosphere.  But 
his  "doctrine"  did  not  suit  the  leader  of  that  earnest  band.  By  declar- 
ing that  the  Father  loved  everybody,  that  Jesus  Christ  had  tasted  death 
for  every  man  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  poured  out  upon  all 
flesh  he  had  challenged  the  veracity  of  "The  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith,"  and  that  could  not  be  tolerated  upon  Free  Church  premises.  In 
imitation  of  their  betters  a  meeting  of  the  executive  was  summoned,  and 
after  a  long  debate  protracted  until  after  midnight  the  young  convert 
from  scepticism  was  excluded  by  deliberate  vote  from  that  community 
upon  the  ground  that  he  had  set  at  naught  the  Free  Church  creed.  There 
was  no  song  in  his  heart  as  he  wallced  homeward  then  and  few  stars 
looked  down  upon  him  from  the  sky,  but  as  he  and  his  young  wife  rose 


Tuesday,  Juno  liU.J  RECORD  OF  rROCEEDlXGS.  119 

together  from  their  knees  they  were  more  sure  than  ever  that  the  love  of 
God  was  free  and  universal  as  the  air. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  from  that  time  onward  he  for- 
swore authoritative  creeds.  He  was  exceedingly  sure  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  was  profoundly  grateful  to  the  teachers  who  assisted  him  in  mastering 
more  of  Christian  trutli.  But  he  had  quite  made  up  his  mind  that  not 
even  the  most  infallible  amongst  his  helj)ers  should  become  his  oracle. 
Step  by  step  as,  in  loyalty  to  Christ  he  studied  the  Bible,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  was  drawn  away  from  his  earlier  associations. 
The  transition  from  Presbyterianism  to  Congregationalism  was  compara- 
tively easy,  but  the  wa,y  from  that  to  the  recognition  of  the  truth  that  all 
believers  and  believers  only  ought  to  be  immersed  in  water  was  compara- 
tively hard.  But  that  conclusion  was  reached  at  last  and  action  had  to 
follow  evidence.  Within  a  year  of  his  baptism  he  crossed  the  threshold 
of  a  Baptist  college  and  in  due  course  his  life-work  in  the  Baptist  minis- 
try began. 

The  atmosphere  of  freedom  which  has  since  surrounded  him  has  doubt- 
less had  its  perils.  There  have  been  times  when  what  he  claimed  as  lib- 
ert}'  began  to  look  like  license,  times  when  his  genuine  friends  had  ample 
reason  for  grave  anxiety,  time  when  he,  like  many  more,  did  well  to  listen 
to  the  notes  of  the  ''recall"  which  Spurgeou  rang  out  so  bravely  from  his 
watchtower  yonder  in  the  British  capital.  But  there  never  Avas  a  time 
when  an  autlioritative  creed  would  not  have  proved  his  enemy  by  ciystal- 
izing  a  phrase  and  making  the  passing  permanent.  Happily  a  creed  like 
that  has  no  existence  in  our  midst  and  he  was  suffered  to  beat  out  his 
own  and  make  it  workable.  In  fact,  his  heresies  were  only  hemispheres 
of  truth,  and  he  was  able  to  annex  the  other  hemispheres  in  time.  And 
now  to-day  he  has  a  creed,  immovable  in  its  centrality,  whose  circle  he 
would  fain  expand  continualh^  and  whose  circumference  is  only  pen- 
cilled in  from  time  to  time.  To-day  he  is  one  of  those  w^ho  look  upon  sin- 
cerity as  saintship,  who  hold  that  Christianity  is  all  inclusive  and  who 
maintain  that  the  law  of  the  Lord  is  binding  u^ion  earthly  empires  quite 
as  truly  as  on  human  souls.  At  the  same  time  he  is  one  of  those  who 
hold  by  the  absolute  Deity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  substitutionary  character 
of  Christ's  atonement  and  the  visibility  of  Christ's  return.  And  he  con- 
tends that  if  he  had  been  trammelled  by  any  authoritative  human  creed, 
he  would  probably  never  have  driven  the  central  truths  which  he  has  seen 
so  deeply  nor  flung  any  of  the  inferential  truths  so  far. 

Brethren,  it  would  be  too  absurd  for  anyone  to  generalize  from  one 
particular.  Yet  the  experience  which  I  have  sketched  is  typical  because 
it  is  the  life-story  of  an  ordinary,  earnest  man.  And  then  you  see  how 
creedal  tyranny  may  injure  and  how  creedal  liberty  may  bless.  I  admit 
that  if  conversion  did  not  constitute  the  cornerstone  of  our  community 
and  if  the  immersion  of  believers  did  not  form  the  reason  for  our  separ- 
ate existence  we  might  have  to  think  of  creedal  tethering.  But  we  are  not 
speaking  on  behalf  of  unconverted,  although  cultured  scholars,  nor  for 
such  saints  as  are  in  our  peculiar  rite  a  useful  variant  of  Christian  bap- 
tism. We  are  thinking  only  of  the  comrades  who,  sharing  our  vital  ex- 
perience of  God  and  discerning  the  holy  implications  of  their  baptism, 
desire  to  follow  their  beloved  Chieftain  everywhere,  and  contend  that  such 
may  well  be  trusted  to  remain  with  the  sphere  of  evangelic  truth.  The 
desire  for  an  authoritative  creed  is  surely  a  departure  from  the  stand- 
point of  our  Baptist  sire^.     It  is  an  endeavor  to  escape  from  spiritual 


120  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

risks  by  artificial  aids  and  so  is  scarcely  honoring  to  one  another  nor  to 
Him  who  is  supposed  to  be  our  chosen  Guide.  Let  us  insist  on  spiritu- 
ality and  loyalty  and  having  these  be  well  content  to  pay  the  price  of 
liberty.  A  Baptist  is  a  man  who,  through  his  baptism,  declares,  not  only 
that  he  is,  through  Christ,  in  vital  connection  with  the  Father  but  also 
that  the  words  of  Christ  historically  interpreted  are  now  his  laws  and 
such  a  man  is  surely  worthy  to  be  trusted  in  the  realm  of  religion,  any- 
where. For  three  hundred  years  the  Baptists  in  both  hemispheres  have 
stood  for  loyalty  to  Christ  and  liberty  amongst  each  other  and  the  prin- 
ciple which  has  sufficed  to  make  us  powerful  will  sufBce  to  keep  us  true. 

Chairman:  I  am  sure  after  this  incisive  thinker's  magnificent  presen- 
tation of  this  great  theme  we  are  ready  to  sing  a  hymn  that  matches  the 
experience  that  has  been  described  to  us. 

Hymn,  "1  Hear  Thy  Welcome  Voice." 

Chairman:  The  next  speech  is  one  that  will  enlist  the  interest,  of 
course,  of  every  Baptist,  a  discussion  of  the  ordinance,  and  an  aspect  of 
the  consideration  of  the  ordinances  that  will  appeal  to  us  especially  in 
view  of  the  general  topic  for  the  evening,  ''The  Vital  Experience  of 
God."  "Oh,  if  we  can  bring  the  ordinances  with  their  beautiful  sym- 
bolic significance  into  the  current  of  divine  life  and  experience  of  our 
own  souls  how  it  will  lift  them  to  a  new  place  of  power!  The  speaker 
who  is  to  discuss  the  subject,  ''The  Spiritual  Interpretation  of  the 
Ordinances"  many  of  you  will  recognize  from  the  London  Conference, 
all  of  you  who  were  there.  His  qualifications  for  presenting  this  theme 
are  many ;  I  cannot  name  them  all,  but  chiefly  these :  He  has  been  a 
life-long  student  of  the  New  Testament.  He  teaches  a  class  of  twenty- 
five  to  fifty  men  in  New  Testament  Greek  every  session  and  a  class  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  English  New 
Testament  studies.  He  has  been  a  professor  of  theology  for  about 
twenty-three  or  twenty-four  years;  he  writes  books  so  fast  that  the  lo- 
cal pastors  say,  "It  keeps  us  all  poor  buying  them."  I  didn't  know  he 
had  time  from  his  work  on  his  enlarged  edition  of  the  Greek  Grammar 
and  the  New  Testament  to  prepare  a  paper  on  this  or  any  other  sub- 
ject, but  he  has.  It  gives  me  a  great  pleasure  to  present  A.  T.  Robert- 
son, D.  D.,  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Louisville, 
Kentucky.     (Applause.) 


THE  SPIRITUAL  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  ORDINANCES. 

By  Prof.  A.  T.  ROBERTSON,  M.  A.,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary,  Louisville,  Ky. 

This  is  one  thing  that  Baptists  stand  for  against  the  great  mass  of 
modem  Christians.  The  Greek  Church,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the 
Lutheran  Church,  the  High  Church  Episcopalians,  and  the  Sacramental 
wing  of  the  Disciples  attach  a  redemptive  value  to  one  or  both  of  the 
ordinances.  It  is  just  here  that  the  term  "Evangelical  Christianity" 
comes  in  to  emphasize  the  spiritual  side  of  religion  independent  of  rite 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDl\'Gfi.  121 

and  ceremony.  It  i.s  a  curious  turn  in  history  tliat  the  one  body  of 
Christians  that  holds  a  thorouglily  consistent  attitude  on  the  subject  of 
regeneration  before  baptism  should  be  so  olten  ciiarged  with  holding  that 
baptism  is  essential  to  salvation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Baptists  lay  less 
emphasis  on  the  necessity  of  baptism  than  any  other  denomination  ex- 
cept the  Quakers  who  go  to  the  extreme  of  rejecting  it  entirely.  The 
Quakers  are  right  in  stressing  the  fact  tliat  one's  spiritual  fellowship 
with  God  is  independent  of  rites,  but  they  impoverish  the  message  of  the 
gospel  in  refusing  to  use  these  ordinances  which  are  charged  with  rich 
truth,  just  because  so  many  misuse  them.  Those  evangelical  Christians 
who  practise  infant  baptism  lay  more  stress  upon  baptism  than  the  Bap- 
tists do,  since  they  will  not  wait  till  the  child  is  converted.  They  prac- 
tise infant  baptism  in  hope  that  the  child  will  be  converted.  This  puts 
the  cart  before,  the  horse  and  empties  the  ordinance  of  its  real  signifi- 
cance. One  cannot  but  Jeel  that  infant  baptism  among  the  evangelical 
denominations  is  a  relic  of  the  fears  tliat  infants  would  perish  unless  they 
were  baptized,  the  origin  of  the  practice,  in  truth.  Then  they  are  wholly 
inconsistent,  though  preaching  salvation  by  grace,  praise  God. 

Now,  Baptists  stand  out  against  the  indifference  of  the  Quakers,  the 
heresy  of  the  Sacramentalists,  the  nervous  over-emphasis  of  the  Psedo- 
baptists  and  contend  for  the  spiritual  apprehension  of  the  ordinances. 
Our  position  is  a  difilicult  one  because  men  are  prone  to  drift  into  reliance 
upon  rites  for  salvation.  It  is  the  lazy  man's  religion.  It  is  the  way  of 
the  literalist.  The  very  use  of  rites  tends,  unless  resisted,  to  harden  into 
formalism  and  sacramentalism,  unless  one  continually  strives  to  see  the 
significance  of  the  symbol.  The  Pharisees  made  an  ordinance  out  of 
washing  the  hands  before  meals.  A  Pharisee  who  invited  Jesus  to  dine 
marvelled  that  Jesus  did  not  take  a  bath  before  the  meal.  Unless  you 
take  a  bath  before  meals,  you  are  unclean  and  cannot  be  saved.  The 
Judaizers  carried  this  sacramental  notion  into  Christianity.  They  held 
that  a  Gentile  could  not  be  saved  without  circumcision.  He  had  to  be- 
come a  Jew,  The  blood  of  Christ  was  not  enough.  The  Holy  Spirit 
could  not  give  one  a  new  heart  without  the  help  of  this  ancient  Jewish 
rite.  So  the  Pharisaic  party  in  the  church  at  Jerusalem  had  Peter  up 
before  the  church  for  fellowship  with  the  house  of  Cornelius  in  Caesarea. 
They  reluctantly  submitted  after  his  story  and  held  their  peace  for  a 
while.  When  Paul  and  Barnabas  returned  from  the  first  great  missionary 
campaign,  the  Judaizers  promptly  turned  up  at  Antioch  with  the  ultima- 
tum: "Except  ye  be  circumcised  after  the  custom  of  Moses,  ye  cannot  be 
saved."  Paul  accepted  the  challenge  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  He 
took  the  matter  to  Jerusalem  to  show  that  the  apostles  and  the  mother 
church  did  not  endorse  the  radical  doctrine  of  the  Judaizers.  He  would 
not  for  the  sake  of  peace  agree  for  Titus,  a  Greek,  to  be  circumcised.  He 
did  not  yield  for  one  hour  to  the  demands  of  the  false  brethren,  that  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  might  abide.  The  battle  of  Paul's  life  was  just  this. 
He  preserved  spiritual  Christianity  against  the  demands  of  the  cere- 
monialists.  He  met  terrific  opposition  as  did  Jesus,  as  did  Stephen,  and 
for  the  same  reason.  The  intolerance  of  those  who  mistake  the  symbol 
for  the  reality  is  always  bitter. 

Paul  won  his  fight  with  the  help  of  the  other  apostles  and  Juda- 
izers were  driven  back  before  the  onward  march  of  apostolic  Christianity. 
But  the  same  narrow  spirit  reappeared  in  the  second  century.  It  dropped 
circumcision   and   seized   on   baptism   as  the  sine  qua  non  of  salvation. 


122  THE  BAPTIST  MOULD  ALLIANCE. 

This  teaching  was  in  reality  Pharisaism  redevivus.  It  was  also  in  har- 
mony with  much  pagan  theology.  It  Avas  easy  to  understand  and  it  swept 
the  field  in  the  course  of  time.  Out  of  the  heresy  of  baptismal  regener- 
ation or  remission  has  sprang  a  brood  of  errors  that  have  turned  the 
course  of  Christian  history  away  from  its  primitive  purity.  If  baptism 
was  regarded  as  essential  to  salvation,  then  the  sick  and  dying  should  be 
baptized  before  it  was  too  late.  Clinic  baptism  thus  arose."  But  the  sick 
could  not  always  be  immersed ;  hence  sprinkling  or  pouring  could  be  done 
in  extreme  cases.  Water  for  immersion  was  not  always  ready  to  hand, 
and,  since  death  might  come,  the  ordinance  had  to  be  changed  to  sprink- 
ling or  pouring.  This  situation  appears  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  in  the  Teaching  nf  the  Twelve  Apostles.  The  supposed 
necessity  of  baptism  is  the  explanation  of  the  gradual  use  of  sprinkling 
and  pouring  alongside  of,  and  finally  instead  of,  immersion.  Thus  also  is 
explained  the  origin  of  infant  baptism.  If  baptism  is  essential  to  sal- 
vation, then  infants  must  be  baptized.  At  first,  and  for  long,  infants 
Avere  immersed  (see  the  Church  of  England  Articles),  but  gradually 
sprinkling  and  pouring  drove  out  immersion. 

The  modern  Baptist  voice  cried  in  the  wilderness  in  the  seventeenth 
century  in  England,  only  the  multitudes  did  not  flock  to  the  wilderness 
to  hear  and  heed.  To  the  many,  after  the  long  centuries  of  perversion 
of  the  ordinances,  we  seem  interlopers  and  disturbers  of  the  settled 
order  of  things.  But  the  Baptist  voice  has  been  heard  in  the  world  of 
scholarship.  The  lexicons,  the  Bible  dictionaries,  the  critical  commen- 
taries with  monotonous  unanimity  now  take  for  granted  as  a  matter  of 
course  that  baptism  in  the  New  Testament  is  immersion  and  immersion 
alone.  To  the  unlearned  Baptists  still  have  to  prove  this  fact  so  patent 
to  scholars. 

And  yet  we  do  not  caiTy  all  modern  evangelical  Christians  with  us  in 
the  restoration  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism.  We  have  won  our  conten- 
tion, but  we  do  not  carrj'  those  who  are  convinced  to  the  point  of  action. 
The  tables  are  turned  upon  us  in  this  wise.  They  say  that  we  are  stick- 
lers for  a  mere  form.  What  is  the  use?  Grant  all  that  we  claim,  and 
what  difference  does  it  make?  So  it  comes  about  in  modern  life  we  are 
put  again  on  the  defensive  and  pushed  over  to  the  edge  near  the  side  of 
the  ceremonialists,  we  who  are  the  champions  par  excellence  of  spiritual 
Christianity,  of  a  regenerated  church-membership.  We  must  expound 
our  message  yet  again.  We  do  not  insist  on  baptism  as  a  condition  or  a 
means  of  salvation.  We  deny  both  positions  very  strenuously.  We  say 
"no  conversion,  no  baptism."  First  the  new  life  in  Christ,  then  the 
baptism  as  the  picture  and  pledge  of  that  life.  We  contend  that  the 
form  is  important  just  because  the  ordinance  is  only  a  symbol.  The 
point  in  a  symbol  lies  in  the  form.  It  is  true  of  a  picture.  One  wants 
the  picture  of  his  own  wife,  not  just  the  picture  of  a  bird,  a  man,  or  that 
of  another  Avoman.  Baptism  is  a  preacher.  It  cannot  preach  its  full 
message  unless  the  real  act  is  performed.  John  the  Baptist  used  baptism 
as  the  pledge  of  a  new  life  worthy  of  the  repentance  which  the  people 
professed.  He  used  it  also  to  manifest  the  Messiah.  Jesus  spoke  of  it 
as  a  symbol  of  His  death,  the  baptism  which  He  was  to  be  baptized  with. 
Peter  likened  it  to  the  flood  in  Noah's  time.  But  it  is  Paul  who  has 
given  the  classic  interpretation  of  the  significance  of  baptism.  He  has 
brought  out  the  rich  message  in  his  "mold  of  doctrine"  as  no  one  else 
has.     It   is   a   burial   and   a  resurrection,   submergence   and   emergence. 


Tuesday,  June  20.]  RJJCOh'D  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  123 

buried  witli  Christ  and  raised  with  Clirist.  It  is  a  preacher  of  Christ's 
own  death  and  resurrection,  of  the  sinner's  death  to  sin  and  resurrection 
to  new  life,  of  the  Christian's  own  death  and  resurrection  in  the  end. 
The  very  heart  of  the  gospel  message  is  thus  enshrined  in  this  wonder- 
ful ordinance.  Leaving  to  one  side  the  question  of  the  duty  of  obedi- 
ence to  the  example  and  command  of  Clirist  and  the  practice  of  the 
apostolic  Christians,  matters  of  no  small  moment,  we  press  our  plea  on 
the  ground  of  the  great  loss  sustained  by  the  perversion  of  the  ordi- 
nance. Its  beauty  is  gone.  Its  message  is  lost.  It  cannot  tell  the  story 
that  was  put  into  it.  It  becomes  a  mere  rite  that  may  have  a  meaning 
to  those  who  perform  it,  but  certainly  not  that  with  which  it  Avas 
charged.  No  stretch  of  imagination  can  make  sprinkling  or  pouring 
proclaim  death  and  resurrection. 

Since  it  is  an  ordinance  to  which  Jesus  submitted  and  which  He  en- 
joined, since  it  is  so  beautiful  in  itself  and  so  rich  in  high  teaching,  we 
claim  that  modern  Christians  should  not  let  mere  custom  or  convenfence, 
prejudice  or  inertia  rob  them  of  the  joy  of  obedience  to  Christ  and  fel- 
lowship with  Ilim  in  His  death  and  resurrection  through  this  mystic 
symbol.  Thus  all  can  proclaim  the  heart  of  the  message  of  Christ's 
death.  We  should  not  rob  Ciiristianity  of  its  full  rights  in  this  mat- 
ter. Let  baptism  preach.  Our  contention  thus  finds  its  full  justifica- 
tion. We  do  not  call  men  non-Christians  who  fail  to  see  this  great  truth. 
We  joyfully  greet  all  true  believers  in  Christ  of  whatever  name  and  are 
glad  to  march  with  them  in  the  gi-eat  army  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  But  Ave 
cannot  approve  the  substitution  of  a  device  of  man  for  the  sacred  ordi- 
nance of  John  and  of  Jesus  and  of  Paul.  Once  it  is  clear  that  immersion 
alone  is  baptism,  then  we  should  not  hesitate  to  take  the  next  step,  to 
be  baptized. 

The  second  ordinance  preaches  much  the  same  message  as  that  of  the 
first,  the  death  of  Christ.  It  does  not,  indeed,  speak  about  burial  and 
resurrection.  It  is  only  of  death  that  it  has  a  message.  But,  if  the 
Lord's  Supper  does  not  hold  so  full  a  message,  the  celebration  is  re- 
peated frequently  while  baptism  comes  only  once.  The  bread  and  the 
cup  symbolize  the  sacrificial  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  The  atonement 
is  thus  preached.  The  blood  of  Christ  was  shed  for  the  remission  of 
sins.  This  ordinance  reminds  us  of  the  blood  covenant  of  grace.  We  were 
bought  Avith  the  blood  of  Christ.  We  must  never  forget  that.  We  keep 
this  ordinance  in  remembrance  of  Christ.  We  proclaim  His  death  till 
He  comes.  The  ordinance,  like  baptism,  points  forAvard  as  Avell  as  back- 
Avard,  the  one  to  the  Second  Coming,  the  other  to  the  Resurrection.  It  is 
a  symbol  also  of  the  high  felloAvship  Avhich  the  saints  Avill  haA-e  with 
Jesus  in  the  Father's  Kingdom  on  high.  It  is  an  ordinance  rich  Avith 
.spiritual  teaching.  We  do  not  admit  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation 
nor  that  of  consubstantiation,  but  Ave  do  see  in  the  Lord's  Supper  much 
significance.  Thus  Ave  symbolize  our  participation  (communion)  in  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ.  Like  baptism,  the  communion  is  a  preacher. 
It  proclaims  the  death  of  Jesus  for  sin,  His  second  coming,  and  our  par- 
ticipation in  the  blessing  of  His  death.  But  there  is  one  thing  more. 
''We.  who  are  many,  are  one  bread,  one  body  for  Ave  all  partake  of  one 
bread."  In  a  mystic  sense  Ave  are  one  loaf  in  Christ.  This  ordinance 
accents  our  felloAvship  with  Christ  and  Avith  one  another. 

Paul  uses  baptism  as  a  powerful  plea  against  sin.  "We  who  died  to 
sin,  how  shall  we  any  longer  live  therein  ?     Or  are  ye  ignorant  that  all 


124  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

we  who  were  baptized  into  Christ,  were  baptized  into  His  death  ? ' '  Rev. 
F.  B.  Meyer  has  made  a  most  effective  use  of  Paul's  argument  in  a  dia- 
gram in  which  a  grave  is  placed  beneath  the  cross.  Our  old  man  was 
crucified  with  Christ  on  the  cross.  The  burial  with  Christ  under  the 
cross  advertises  our  death  to  sin.  We  come  out  on  the  other  side  of  the 
cross  and  His  grave  to  a  new  life  in  Christ.  Paul  uses  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per in  a  similar  plea  for  consecration.  '^Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the 
Lord  and  the  cup  of  demons.  Ye  cannot  partake  of  the  table  of  the  Lord, 
and  of  the  table  of  demons."  He  alludes  to  the  feasts  in  the  idol  tem- 
ples, but  the  principle  is  general.  How  can  the  man  who  partakes  of  the 
cup  of  the  Lord  resort  to  the  saloon,  the  gambling  den?  How  can  he 
align  himself  with  the  evil  forces  of  this  world?  Baptism  is  a  true 
sacr amentum,  the  Christian  soldier's  oath  of  fealty  to  Christ  in  his  con- 
flict with  the  hosts  of  Satan.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  the  mystic  fellow- 
ship of  the  saints  with  Christ  and  with  each  other  in  Christ. 

The  ordinances  speak  loudly  against  the  misuse  into  which  they  have 
fallen.  Between  over-emjDhasis  and  indifference  there  is  the  golden  mean 
of  truth.  The  Baptist  voice  has  always  spoken  in  clear  tones  for  the 
free  intercourse  of  the  soul  with  God.  The  ordinances  preach  the  same 
glorious  doctrine  of  soul  liberty.  They  testify  to  the  fact  that  the  soul 
is  in  communion  with  God  through  Christ.  It  is  a  supreme  travesty  to 
make  these  ordinances  stand  between  the  soul  and  Christ  as  hindrances, 
not  as  helps,  to  the  spiritual  life.  Through  centuries  of  misunderstand- 
ing we  have  come  thus  far.  Three  hundred  years  ago  the  English  Ana- 
baptists then  in  exile  in  Holland  made  a  confession  of  faith  in  which 
they  protested  against  infant  baptism  as  the  Dutch  and  German  Ana- 
baptists had  done  a  century  before.  It  was  not  till  1640-1  that  the  Eng- 
lish Anabaptists  clearly  grasped  the  Scriptural  requirement  of  immer- 
sion alone  as  the  true  baptism.  The  Baptists  have  not  cried  in  vain  during 
these  centuries  for  a  return  to  apostolic  purity  in  the  matter  of  the  or- 
dinances, for  the  immersion  of  believers  only.  In  simple  truth  many 
men  of  culture  in  other  denominations  wish  that  they  instead  of  the 
Baptists  had  the  powerful  message  which  Baptists  offer  to  the  world. 
It  is  a  message  of  reality  and  is  in  harmony  with  the  modern  spirit.  The 
life  is  more  than  meat,  more  than  ceremony.  There  is  no  reason  in  any 
ceremony  that  does  not  express  a  glorious  reality.  If  we  have  died  to 
sin  and  are  living  in  Christ,  the  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  have  a 
blessed  significance;  else  they  become  a  mockery  and  a  misnomer.  Never 
in  all  the  history  of  the  world  was  the  Baptist  message  on  the  ordi- 
nances more  needed  than  it  is  to-day.  Never  did  it  have  so  good  a 
chance  to  win  a  hearing. 

Session  adjourned  after  the  benediction  pronounced  by  Rev.  E.  D. 
Stephens,  of  Missouri. 


Wednesday,  June  21. J     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  125 


FIFTH   SESSION 


Wednesday  Morning,  June  21,  1911. 

The  session  opened  at  9.30  with  a  devotional  service  led  by  Rev.  James 
A.  Francis,  of  Massachusetts. 

After  the  singing  of  ''How  Firm  a  Foundation." 

Dr.  Francis:  I  will  ask  your  attention  to  the  High-Priestly  prayer  of 
the  Master  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  words  of  the  praj'er  are  very  familiar  to  you  all.  The  prayer 
proceeds  in  concentric  circles.  First  of  all  the  Master  prays  for  him- 
self, one  single  petition;  then  he  prays  for  the  little  group  of  disciples 
around  him,  then  he  Avidens  the  prayer,  then  prays  for  all  those  who  shall 
believe  on  him  through  their  word  and  then  he  widens  it  once  more  to 
take  in  the  whole  round  world.  Let  us  look  at  these  petitions  for  a  mo- 
ment, they  are  exeeedinglj'  precious  for  one  reason.  We  are  told  that  he 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us,  but  since  the  cloud-curtain  closed 
behind  the  form  of  our  Master  no  whisper  of  that  great  heavenly  inter- 
cession has  been  heard  on  earth,  and  tliis  chapter  is  a  kind  of  sample 
given  us  before  he  went  away  that  gives  the  clearest  hint  that  we  have 
of  the  nature  of  this  age-long,  all-prevailing  intercession. 

Notice  first  the  Master's  prayer  for  himself,  one  solitary  definite  pe- 
tition, "Father  glorify  thy  Son";  and  then  he  expands  it  by  saying 
"Glorify  thou  me,  with  a  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world 
was."  If  we  dare  to  paraphrase  it  in  familiar  language  it  would  be 
something  like  this,  "Father,  I  have  done  all  for  the  accomplishment  of 
redemption  that  I  can  do  on  earth ;  now  put  me  back  where  I  was  before 
I  came  down  from  heaven  to  be  the  world's  Saviour."  But  in  the  centre 
of  that  petition  our  Master  puts  in  a  mighty  parenthesis  and  in  that 
parenthesis  he  gives  a  report  of  his  earthly  ministry  in  a  couple  of  great 
sentences  something  like  this,  "Father,  thou  hast  given  to  thy  Son 
power  over  all  flesh  that  he  should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  thou 
hast  given  him,  and  I  have  given  to  them  eternal  life  by  making  thee 
known  to  them,  for  this  is  life  eternal  that  they  might  know  thee." 

And  now  the  Master  moves  on  naturally  from  the  petition  for  him- 
self to  a  petition  for  the  group  that  stands  around  him;  but  before  he 
asks  anything  for  them  he  makes  a  report  to  the  Father  concerning  them. 
He  knows  these  men,  he  can  tell  all  about  each  one  of  them,  every  pecu- 
liarity, every  characteristic,  every  weakness,  every  element  of  strength. 
He  passes  by  all  that  and  under  the  awful  shadow  of  the  cross  there  is 
only  one  thing  that  the  Master  cares  to  tell  the  Father  about  this  group 
of  men  and  it  is  this:  He  says,  "Father,  I  have  given  them  the  words 
that  thou  gavest  me  and  they  have  received  them  and  they  have  believed 
that  I  came  forth  from  thee,"  and  in  that  word  Jesus  pointed  out  the 


126  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

supreme  event  or  the  supreme  j^rocess  iii  the  spiritual  history  of  those 
men.  He  told  the  Father  the  greatest  thing  that  eternal  God  knew  about 
these  men  when  he  told  the  Father  the  simple  fact,  "I  gave  them  the 
message  that  thou  gavest  me  and  they  received  the  message  and  they  be- 
lieved that  I  came  forth  from  thee." 

And  having  made  this  simple  and  yet  profound  and  wonderful  report 
concerning  them,  the  Master  goes  on  to  pray.  He  asks  three  things  for 
them:  first,  "Father,  keep  them  in  unity";  secondly,  ''Keep  them  from 
evil ' ' ;  thirdly,  ' '  Keep  them  in  holy  consecration  to  the  same  mission  to 
which  I  have  consecrated  myself."  Trust  Jesus  Christ  to  round  the  sum 
of  things,  to  supply  the  secret  of  the  universe,  the  very  heart  of  God. 
In  those  words  he  summed  up  the  essentials  for  the  Christian  church  for 
all  ages,  "Keep  them  in  unity."  What  kind  of  unity f  Why,  the  same 
kind  of  unity  that  subsists  between  me  and  thee,  the  unity  of  a  divine 
life.  If  any  one  thing  has  been  splendidly  emphasized  in  the  addresses 
we  have  heard  here,  it  is  this,  that  the  unity  in  which  we  believe  is  not 
the  artificial  or  formal  but  that  it  is  the  vital  unity  of  the  divine  life. 

And  then  he  says,  "Father,  keep  them  from  the  evil  that  is  in  the 
world."  But  how?  "Through  thy  name,"  and  then  he  adds,  "While  I 
was  with  them  I  kept  them  through  thy  name."  It  is  a  very  significant 
expression,  that  means  nothing  less  than  this,  "While  I  have  been  with 
these  men  the  only  hold  I  had  on  them  was  the  spell  I  cast  over  them  by 
what  I  am ;  I  never  asked  one  of  them  to  promise  that  he  would  stay  with 
me  a  week ;  they  were  always  free  to  go  away  and  when  I  said  to  them 
'Will  ye  also  go  away?'  the  only  thing  that  held  them  from  going  was 
couched  in  Peter's  answer,  now  'Lord  to  whom  shall  we  go;  thou  hast 
the  words  of  eternal  life. '  ' '  And  so  the  Master  says,  ' '  After  I  go  awaj^, 
it  will  be  just  the  same  way  as  I  held  them  to  myself  as  with  hoops  of 
steel  by  the  spell  of  my  own  life  and  my  own  personality,  0  Father, 
keep  them  that  way  forever  through  thy  name." 

Then  the  third  petition.  It  reads  in  our  version  "sanctifj^,"  but  you 
all  know  that  the  word  there  means  "consecrate."  "Consecrate  them," 
and  if  we  ask  for  the  explanation  we  have  it  two  verses  further  along, 
where  he  says,  "For  their  sakes  I  consecrate  myself."  This  is  Christ's 
mirror  of  the  ideal  Christian  church  throughout  the  world;  unity  in  the 
unity  of  a  divine  life,  kept  from  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world  by  the  spell 
of  Christ 's  power  and  person,  consecrated  by  the  same  power  to  the  same 
work  to  which  the  Master  consecrated  himself.  And  then  in  his  pro- 
phetic soul  he  heard  the  tramp  of  coming  millions  and  he  widened  the 
circle  of  his  prayer  and  he  said,  "Father,  not  for  thes3  alone  but  for  all 
those  who  shall  believe  on  me  through  their  word, ' '  and  then  he  repeated 
for  them  the  prayer  that  he  had  made  for  the  little  band  of  disciples  al- 
ready gathered.  And  then  once  more  he  widened  his  circle,  after  this 
fashion,  he  prayed  for  the  unity  of  the  whole  world  in  order  "that  the 
world" — he  who  died  for  the  world  could  not  make  his  prayer  nar- 
rower than  the  world, — "that  the  world  might  know  that  thou  hast  sent 
me,  and  hast  loved  them  as  thou  hast  loved  me." 


\\oaiR's(lay,  June  21. J      RlX'OlU)  OF  I'h'<J<'lJJ:iJj.\ (J,S.  127 

Let  us  lift  our  hearts  together  for  a  moment  before  we  go  to  tlie  busi- 
ness of  the  day. 
Led  in  prayer. 
Hymn,  "Blest  Be  the  Tie  that  Binds." 

Chairman:  W.  S.  Shalk-nberger,  ot  Wasliington,  D.  C:  We  have  a 
vision  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  we  have  had  a  vision  broader  than 
this.  "We  have  been  told  by  the  president  that  we  are  only  one  of  tlie  Al- 
liances that  make  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  We  are  peculiarly 
favored  this  morning  by  introducing  to  you  one  who  represents  the  Pres- 
byterian World  Alliance.  Not  only  so.  but  in  company  with  him  to  do  us 
honor  to-day,  to  join  voices  and  hearts  with  us  in  world-wide  evangeliza- 
tion we  luive  on  the  platform  Eev.  Dr.  Hunter,  Kev.  John  R.  Davies,  and 
Rev.  W.  Nevin,  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  These  men  will  voice, 
through  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Henry  Roberts,  late  president  of  the  Pres- 
byterian World's  Alliance,  and  now-  chairman  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America — through 
him  I  say  they  voice  to  us  the  expressions  of  co-operation  and  comity 
wiiich  move  the  hearts  of  the  great  kindi-ed  denomination.  I  have  great 
pleasure  in  presenting  Dr.  Roberts. 

Dr.  William  Henry  Roberts  was  greeted  with  the  Chautauqua  salute 
and  said :  Brethren  in  Jesus  Christ,  elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge 
of  God  the  Father  through  sanetification  of  the  spirit  into  obedience  and 
sprinkling  of  tlie  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  grace  unto  you  and  peace  be 
multiplied.  It  is  my  high  privilege  to  repi-esent  before  this  Baptist  World 
Alliance  two  bodies  entering  into  close  fellowship  one  with  another,  hav- 
ing as  their  chief  purpose  that  w^hich  is  likewise  yours,  the  winning  of  the 
world  to  Jesus  Christ;  and  first  is  the  World's  Presbyterian  Alliance, 
whose  secretary  I  have  the  honor  to  be.  That  alliance  is  found  on  all 
the  six  continents  and  consists  of  ninety  denominational  and^  national 
churches  and  has  a  constituency  of  twenty-five  millions.  I  bring  to  you 
their  greetings,  their  cordial  greetings,  their  congratulations  upon  your 
success  in  your  work  for  man  and  Jesus  Christ,  and  their  prayers  that 
your  work  may  be  crowned  in  the  future  with  yet  greater  results.  We 
realize  and  we  feel  as  you  do  that  we  have  entered  upon  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  Christianity  in  the  opening  years  of  the  twentieth  century. 
There  was  never  a  time  when  the  idea  of  the  world  as  a  world  to  be  saved 
was  so  practically  realized  by  Christians  everywhere  as  in  this  present, 
and  we  need  to  emphasize  that  concej)tion  more  and  more,  dwelling  upon 
the  thought  so  ably  presented  to  us  during  the  devotional  service,  that 
the  chief  purpose  of  Christ's  life  as  well  as  of  Christ's  prayer  the  night 
before  his  crucifixion  was  this  and  is  this  "that  the  w^orld  may  believe 
that  thou  [the  Father]  hast  sent  me."  May  we  not  cultivate  more  and 
more  this  conception  of  a  world  which  is  to  be  saved  through  Jesus 
Christ  1 

Let  me  very  concisely,  as  my  time  is  limited,  speak  a  word  as  to  our 


128  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

common  effort  in  the  past  for  the  spread  of  true  religion  throughout  the 
"world.  We  are  much  closer  together,  Baptists  and  Presbyterians,  than 
many  persons  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking.  We  believe,  for  instance,  in 
the  sovereignty  of  God  the  Father.  They  call  us  Calvinists;  they  some- 
times use  the  word  ''Paulician."  The  fact  is  that  we  are  New  Testament 
Christians,  whether  we  be  Baptists  or  Presbyterians,  and  believe  that  the 
destiny  of  every  human  being  is  under  him  who  is  at  once  a  Sovereign 
and  a  Father.  By  that  faith  we  have  stood  throughout  the  centuries. 
Another  cardinal  doctrine  in  which  we  believe  is  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Word  of  God  as  the  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  life.  Presbyterians  as 
well  as  Baptists  deny  the  right  of  any  human  authority  to  bind  the  con- 
science. Here  is  the  only  law  for  faith  and  conduct.  (Indicating  the 
Bible.)  We  believe  further  with  you  in  the  sovereignty  of  Christ  in  sal- 
vation. Salvation  is  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  not  as  some  teach  by  char- 
acter. Character  is  not  the  source  of  salvation,  it  is  the  evidence  that 
one  is  a  saved  sinner.  And  then  we  believe  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  indi- 
vidual conscience  under  God.  God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience.  By 
that  doctrine  Presbyterians  everywhere  stand,  and  we  know  we  have  in 
you,  fellow-believers,  fellow-workers,  and  men  who  constantly  in  their 
lives,  whether  in  Church  or  in  State,  maintain  that  great  truth.  By  this 
doctrine,  brethren,  we  have  stood  together.  There  are  others  upon  which 
I  might  dwell,  but  that  is  sufficient  for  the  present  moment.  Let  us 
stand  by  these  great  truths  in  the  future  as  in  the  pa;5t;  they  are  essen- 
tial to  the  welfare  of  men ;  they  are  vital  to  the  spiritual  character  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  By  their  earnest  teaching  and  promulgation 
they  will  bring  in  throughout  the  earth  ere  long  the  everlasting  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

Now,  in  connection  with  the  work  of  the  church  in  the  homeland,  a 
word  as  to  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 
That  Federal  Council  consists  of  thirty-two  denominations,  has  a  con- 
stituency of  sixteen  millions  and  binds  together  in  a  true  unity  for  co- 
operation in  Christian  work  under  Jesus  Christ  the  divine  Saviour  the 
majority  of  those  who  bear  the  name  of  Protestants  in  the  United  States. 
I  bring  you  their  greetings.  Closer  together  in  this  land  have  Christian 
believers  come  than  in  any  other.  That  is  natural.  Here  the  great  prin- 
ciples in  Avhich  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  and  Protestants  generally 
believe  have  been  taught  and  practised  as  nowhere  else.  Here  there  has 
been  liberty  for  all  consciences;  here  there  have  been  no  limitations  by 
the  State  upon  the  Church;  here  the  gospel  has  been  in  every  respect 
free ;  and  believers  at  last  are  coming  together  in  this  land,  and  we  hope 
their  coming  together  will  be  a  stimulus  to  their  coming  together  else- 
where until  there  shall  be  not  only  a  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America,  but  a  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
throughout  the  world. 

For  one  I  am  no  believer  in  the  organic  union  of  Christians.  The  Pres- 
byterian World  Alliance  has  as  its  motto,  "Co-operation  without  Incor- 
poration." That  is  a  good  motto  for  Christians  everywhere.     There  are 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     REVOJW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  129 

different  types  of  thought.  Men  are  not  eon.structed  by  tlie  great  Creator 
upon  one  model,  there  must  be  liberty:  ''Co-operation  without  incorpora- 
tion" is  a  true  watchword  for  Christians  throughout  the  world.  May  we 
cultivate  fellowship,  may  we  exalt  Christ  increasingly,  may  we  more 
and  more  give  freedom  to  the  spirit  of  missions  in  all  our  cliurches.  And 
as  I  think  of  missions,  just  a  word  to  close,  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  it 
is  said  to  the  Angel  of  the  church  in  Philadelphia,  "I  have  set  before 
thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man  can  shut  it."  The  World's  Presbyterian 
Alliance  to  which  I  have  referred  was  suggested  in  1870  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  in  this  city.  The  Federal  Council  of 
the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  was  organized  in  this  city.  You  are 
meeting  here  as  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  in  the  City  of  Brotherly 
Love.  May  God  give  this  brotherly  love  to  increase.  There  is  before 
us  an  open  door;  into  that  open  door  may  the  churches  of  Christ  every- 
where press  forward,  upon  their  faces  the  sunshine  of  him  who  is  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  within  their  hearts  the  love  for  souls,  souls  for 
which  Christ  died,  of  very  land  and  every  race,  cherishing  in  all  minds 
the  hope  of  the  coming  of  the  day  when  Jesus  Christ  shall  be  enthroned 
as  Lord  of  all.  This  is  our  hope ;  may  we  labor  therefore  and  strive  for 
the  coming  of  the  day  when  it  shall  find  a  glad  and  glorious  fruition. 
(Applause.) 

Chairman:  We  were  told  on  Monday  afternoon  by  our  distinguished 
president  that  he  was  very  much  impressed  by  the  municipal  recognition 
of  the  World  Alliance  in  Philadelphia.  I  would  like  to  say  for  his  gratifi- 
cation that  that  recognition  is  just  a  little  broader  than  he  feared  at 
that  moment.  If  you  will  notice  the  great  sign  illuminating  the  city  by 
night  you  will  find  that  it  says,  ''WELCOME  TO  THE  BAPTIST  CON- 
VENTIONS," including  this  convention  and  all  the  conventions.  Now, 
we  are  not  only  welcomed  by  the  civic  authority  of  this  great  city,  but 
we  are  welcomed  by  the  local  Presbytery  of  this  city,  represented  by 
Dr.  Robert  Hunter,  who,  in  a  word  Avill  voice  the  welcome  of  the  local 
Presbyterians  of  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Hunter:  Mr.  Chairman — and  if  I  were  addressing  a  Presbytery 
or  a  Synod  or  a  General  Assembly  I  would  say  Fathers  and  Brethren — 
but  I  must  add  to  that  salutation  here,  fathers  and  brethren  and  sisters, 
for  I  understand  that  the  sisters  have  equal  part  and  equal  rights  with 
the  brethren  and  the  fathers  on  the  floor  of  the  house.  And  in  this  re- 
gard you  are  Pauline  surely,  for  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Gentile,  bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female. 

Possibly  Presbyterian  ism  can  learn  something  from  looking  over  this 
Convention  therefore.  The  Mother  Presbytery  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States  of  America,  a  part  of  world-wide  Presby- 
terianism,  brings  to  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  this  morning  fraternal, 
cordial,  and  hearty  Christian  greetings.  We  Presbyterians  who  are 
frying  to  fill  our  place  as  well  as  we  know  how  in  this  great  city  know 
the    pleasure    of    having    Baptists    of   this    city    right    alongside    of   us. 


130  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

heart  to  heart,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  hand  iu  hand,  and  the  great  aggres- 
sive co-operative  work  for  the  salvation  of  men  and  for  the  regeneration 
of  society. 

One  of  the  grandest  sermons  I  am  sure  ever  preached,  that  which  pro- 
duced the  mightiest  effect  in  the  history  of  the  church,  possibly  outside 
of  the  sermons  of  Christ  himself  or  of  Saint  Paul,  was  that  great  sermon 
13reached  by  your  own  William  Carey  and  you  will  possibly  recall  the 
great  text — for  a  great  sermon  must  have  a  great  text — ''Enlarge  the 
place  of  thy  tent,  and  let  them  stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habi- 
tations ;  spare  not :  lengthen  thy  cords,  and  strengthen  thy  stakes.  For 
thou  shalt  spread  abroad  on  the  right  hand  and  on  tlie  left ;  and  thy  seed 
shall  possess  the  nations,  and  make  the  desolate  cities  to  be  inhabited." 
But  that  sermon  had  a  great  analysis.  You  will  recall  it,  "Expect 
great  things  from  God ;  attempt  gi-eat  things  for  God, ' '  and  this  Baptist 
World  Alliance  this  morning  is  the  realization  of  all  that  was  in  the 
heart  of  Carey,  the  realization  of  what  it  means  to  expect  great  things 
from  God  and  what  it  means  to  attempt  great  things  for  God.  You 
have  carried  out  the  idea,  and  so  there  are  sixty  nations  re^^resented  here 
to-day.  And  yet  this  is  but  the  beginning.  "Earth  speaks  with  many 
tongues,  heaven  knows  but  one, ' '  and  while  we  speak  with  many  tongues 
in  the  human  sense  of  the  term  Ave  are  all  speaking  here  on  earth  the 
language  of  heaven,  telling  the  lost  world  that  which  we  have  seen  and 
heard,  telling  the  lost  world  the  way  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 

Pentecost  has  been  far  exceeded  since  that  time.  More  nations  are 
here  to-day  than  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Aiid  you  are  showing  by  your 
presence  that  it  is  truer  to-day  so  far  as  the  wide  world  is  concerned 
that  every  man  shall  hear  the  wonderful  wisdom,  and  salvation  of  God 
in  his  own  tongue.  And  as  I  don't  propose  to  take  too  much  of  your 
valuable  time  I  simply  close  by  expressing  on  behalf  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Philadelphia  our  sincere  desire,  our  sincere  and  earnest  prayer  that 
that  which  is  represented  here  to-day  in  the  conquest  of  the  world  for 
Jesus  Christ  by  you  of  the  Baptist  Alliance  shall  be  but  the  promise 
of  the  still  greater  things  that  shall  be  expected  of  God.  and  of  the  still 
greater  things  that  shall  be  attempted  for  God  by  you  and  by  us  and  by 
all  the  great  departments  of  the  one  universal  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
(Applause.) 

Chairman  :  I  will  say  for  the  benefit  of  our  good  Presbyterian  breth- 
ren and  others  that  we  have  one  among  us  who  Avill  voice  the  response 
of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  in  the  person  of  Dr.  John  Clifford,  who 
lives  in  London  and  who  is  Dean  of  the  world  of  Baptists. 

Dr.  Clifford  was  greeted  with  applause  and  said :  I  have  very  much 
pleasui'e  in  making  that  response  in  your  name.  I  need  not  say  that  it 
must  necessarily  be  very  brief,  but  I  do  say  at  the  same  time  that  it 
is  thoroughly  hearty.  We  are  delighted  to  see  our  Presbyterian  friends 
and  to  receive  their  greetings,  not  only  their  greetings  from  the  Presby- 
terian body  in  this  city  and  throughout  the  States,  but  their  greetings 


WVdnesdny.  .luiR-  21.1      RKCOUn  OF  Ph'OC/J/.'niXGt^.  13T 

expressed  by  Dr.  Koberls  t'ruiu  the  Nalioiiul  Cuuiicil  of  Federated 
Churches  tliroughoiit  tliese  United  States.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  us  to 
hear  the  words  which  they  have  expressed  and  I  can  assure  them  that 
we  have  the  heartiest  desire  that  their  success  may  be  increased  a  thou- 
sand fold  and  tiial  together  we  may  march  forward  on  behalf  of  the  great 
movements  with  which  the  kingdom  of  (Jod  is  so  vitally  concerned.  It  is 
a  joy  to  us  to  know  tlmt  tlicre  is  this  federation  of  tlie  churches  of  this 
country. 

Our  National  Council,  of  which  Mr.  Meyer  is  secretary,  has  been  in 
existence  noAv  some  sixteen  or  seventeen  j^ears,  and  we  are  glad  to  find 
that  in  these  States  you  have  a  council  linking  all  the  churches,  free 
churches  as  we  call  them  in  our  own  country,  all  the  Protestant  churches 
together  and  that  it  is  on  a  broader  basis  tlian  even  ours  in  England  and 
we  pray  that  God's  blessing  may  rest  on  the  united  efforts  of  these 
churches  for  the  extension  of  his  kingdom  in  this  land  and  throughout 
the  world.   (Applause.) 

Chairman  :  I  wish  to  voice  to  you  the  congratulations  which  I  bring 
you  and  which  I  bring  to  myself  that  we  have  lived  to  see  this  day.  I 
thank  the  Lord  tliat  in  the  seventy  years  and  more  of  my  life  I  have 
never  been  permitted  to  enjoy  any  five  years,  no  not  any  twenty-five 
years  as  I  have  the  past  five.  I  congratulate  the  Baptist  Brotherhood  of 
America  and  Canada,  Central  America  and  all  the  States  of  North  and 
South  America  that  we  have  been  permitted  to  hear  from  Dr.  John  Clif- 
ford, of  London,  that  expression  of  Baptist  faith  and  polity  which  may 
be  carried  into  the  remotest  corner  of  this  earth  and  find  a  lodgment. 
I  congratulate  him  upon  the  ability  and  tact  and  divinely  inspired  wis- 
dom which  has  permitted  him  to  speak  a  forceful  message  in  the  spirit 
of  love.  No  one  could  possibly  think  otherwise  of  Dr.  Clifford  than  as  a 
brother.  There  is  not  a  man  so  humble,  so  far  distant  from  all  social 
privileges,  but  that  may  find  in  Dr.  John  Clifford's  expressions  the  very 
humility  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Great  as  he  is  in  mentality  he  is 
greater  still  in  the  spirit  of  tlie  divine  Lord  who  was  servant  of  all. 
He  lives  to  serve,  and  well  will  it  be  for  all  of  us  when  that  can  be 
said  of  us.  The  man  or  the  woman  who  seeks  an  ollice  in  a  Christian 
church  is  scarcely  worthy  of  that  oince.  We  must  arise  above  the  ways 
of  the  world,  we  must  absolutely  rule  out  of  our  Convocation  small  or 
great  what  is  called  "ward  politics,"  We  must  cultivate  that  spirit  of 
affection  for  every  man  and  every  woman  regardless  of  race  or  color  or 
sex,  to  which  our  beloved  Presbyterian  brother  has  so  well  referred  this 
morning;  we  must  cultivate  that  spirit  so  that  when  we  come  togetlier 
"we  shall  have  no  bisliop  or  king  or  priest  between  us  ami  the  Ijord  Jesus 
who  is  our  Master  and  our  Life. 

I  look  at  you  this  morning  and  I  see  you  not  as  delegates  from  the 
United  States  of  America;  I  want  to  see  the  farthest  delegate  who  came 
twenty  thousand  five  hundred  miles  to  reach  us.  I  want  to  see  William 
Fetler,  of  Russia,  who  like  Paul  speaks  to  us  in  bonds  and  glories  in  the 


132  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

fact  that  he  is  permitted  to  come  from  far-away  Russia  to  testify  to  the 
freedom  of  conscience  in  the  brotherhood  of  man.  Oh,  that  we  have 
lived  to  see  the  great  day,  and  I  wish  that  I  could  myself  voice  the 
aspiration  of  my  heart,  when  you  will  believe,  every  one  of  you  will  be- 
lieve, that  it  is  your  bounden  duty  and  your  highest  privilege  to  go  into 
all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 

We  don't  believe  it,  we  think  we  can  send  men  to  do  it  but  that  is  not 
the  Great  Commission.  We  must  go ;  we  did  go  to  Russia,  brethren  of  the 
Southland,  brethren  of  the  Northland,  we  did  go  to  Russia;  we  sent  our 
prayers,  we  sent  a  little  money,  we  sent  our  hopes,  our  longings,  our 
yearning,  that  far-away  delegates  should  come  to  us  and  do  us  good,  and 
that  we  should  do  them  good.  We  want  them  to  serve  us  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Master,  and  if  I  mistake  not,  the  inspiration  of  that  masterly  ad- 
dress, that  inspiring  address  of  Dr.  Clifford  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  of 
the  environment  of  these  delegates  that  I  see  all  around  me  from  very 
distant  shores.  How  could  it  be  otherwise?  The  atmosphere  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  that  reaches  the  remotest  hamlet -in  all  the  world,  is 
here,  it  is  here.  It  is  here  in  the  song  service.  We  may  not  understand 
the  language,  I  didn't,  but  when  I  stood  in  yonder  gallery  and  saw  our 
foreign  delegates,  from  Russia  especially,  rise  and  sing.  Oh,  I  knew  the 
language  of  song;  it  touched  my  heart;  I  knew  we  were  brethren;  they 
did  not  need  to  have  me  interpret. 

I  cannot  interpret  all  the  language  of  the  dear  Saviour  whose  message 
I  carry  in  my  pocket  and  have  carried  for  many,  many  years.  I  cannot 
interpret  it  in  the  light  that  he  would  have  me  do,  but  I  am  coming  more 
and  more  to  do  it,  and  the  proudest  privilege  I  enjoy  to-day  is  the  privi- 
lege of  studying  that  word  all  the  Aveek  with  the  intent  to  try  to  teach 
it  on  the  following  Sunday  morning.  There  is  no  higher  honor  coming 
to  the  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States — the  late  Jus- 
tice Brewer  has  given  us  the  authority  for  saying — there  was  no  higher 
privilege  to  the  late  Justice  Brewer  than  to  stand  before  his  class  on 
Sunday  morning  and  teach  the  truth  of  God's  word. 

Brethren,  we  need  more  Bible  study.  We  laymen  need  it,  and  I  think 
it  would  not  hurt  the  ministers  to  have  it.  We  certainly  need  it  as  lay- 
men and  you  ministers  need  to  carry  the  gTeat  message  of  Dr.  Clifford, 
not  only  read  it  to  your  people,  but  study  it  as  our  actors  study  Hamlet 
in  Shakespeare  and  act  it  before  them,  live  it  before  them  and  love  it 
before  them,  until  you  absorb  it  as  he  has  absorbed  it  from  the  very 
spirit  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whose  mantle  rests  upon  him.  "Go  ye." 
Do  you  tell  me  that  you  cannot  go  1  Twenty-five  hundred  delegates  each 
giving  $2,500  cannot  go  into  any  remote  comer  of  the  earth!  Do  you 
tell  me  water  will  not  run  uphill,  therefore  you  cannot  enter  China, 
Western  China,  Tibet?  You  cannot  do  it?  Oh,  think  of  the  laws  of  the 
physical  universe  in  the  last  fifty,  even  forty,  years.  The  mountain 
stream  in  the  far  West  did  cross  the  mountain  and  fertilize  the  valley 
until  it  blossoms  as  the  rose,  not  by  going  over  it  but  by  going  through 
it.    Wle  have  irrigation  in  the  far  West,  teaching  us  faith  in  the  power 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  133 

of  the  water  of  salvation  to  fertilize  and  fructify  and  beautify  every  re- 
mote corner  of  tliis  earth  until  it  likewise  blossoms  like  the  rose  and 
becomes  so  fragrant  that  we  shall  always  know  it. 

Again,  my  dear  father  when  he  died  could  not  have  believed  that  with- 
out any  change  of  physical  law  I  could  speak  to  Boston  from  the  room 
in  which  I  sleep,  with  its  solid  wails  of  fifteen  inches  of  stone  and  mor- 
tar. He  could  not  have  believed  it;  he  would  have  said,  the  law  of 
sound  makes  it  impossible  for  you  to  believe  it.  But  I  tell  you  I  do,  and 
I  will  put  you  where  you  can  talk  to  my  brother  in  Cincinnati  or  Chicago 
or  Boston  right  from  the  room  which  you  live  in  in  Philadelphia.  If  the 
laws  of  the  physical  universe  were  unknown  to  us  forty  years  ago,  shall 
it  not  be  true  that  we  shall  find  fifty  years  hence  that  the  laws  of  the 
spiritual  universe  of  God  have  not  been  interpreted  as  they  should  be'. 

We  have  not  had  a  vision  large  enough  to  believe  we  can  evangelize 
the  world  in  this  generation.  We  need  the  Baptist  Alliance,  the  Metho- 
dist Alliance,  the  Presbyterian  Alliance,  and  all  the  alliances  of  Chris- 
tendom. We  need  them  marching  side  by  side  and  in  happy  and  hearty 
co-operation  entering  every  unchristian  country  and  illustrating  in  their 
lives,  by  the  medical  missionaries  they  take  to  minister  to  the  body,  by 
the  spiritual  mentors  and  missionaries  who  lead  them  into  higher  life; 
we  need  to  have  all  this  co-operation  from  the  particular  outlook  of  mod- 
ern organization  and  business  before  we  can  expect  the  business  men  of 
large  means  to  lay  their  money  by  the  million  on  the  altar  of  their 
Lord.  It  is  coming.  The  Brotherhood  of  America  will  bring  it;  the 
men  in  Religious  Forward  Movement  will  be  as  wide-awake  as  the  wo- 
men of  this  country  in  their  jubilee.  Never  have  I  been  so  inspired  as  to 
see  the  report  of  Mrs.  Montgomery  in  the  Missionary  Review;  of  that 
wonderful  movement  rolling  from  the  Pacific  Coast  eastward  till  it  has 
flooded  this  country  in  that  one  beautiful  interdenominational  jubilee 
movement  that  laid  the  consecrated  womanhood  of  America  at  the  feet 
of  the  Master. 

0  men,  we  need  the  inspiration  of  such  movements  ourselves;  we  need 
them  in  these  meetings.  Let  us  have  them.  Wake  up  and  warm  up  and 
above  all  love  up  the  children  who  are  neglected;  love  the  laboring  peo- 
ple who  are  now  seemingly  hopeless  in  some  sections,  love  everybody  up, 
and  then  teach  them  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ.     (Applause.) 

Hymn,  **How  Firm  a  Foundation." 

Secretary'  Prestridge  read  to  the  meeting  the  following  messages : 

"June  8,  1911. 
"Dear  Mr.  Shakespeare: 

"I  am  venturing,  as  president  of  the  National  Free  Church  Council, 
to  send  my  respectful  and  most  hearty  greetings  to  the  World  Baptist 
Congress.  As  a  Free  Churchman,  I  rejoice  in  the  part  which  Baptists 
have  played  in  the  struggle  for  religious  liberty,  and  the  endeavor  after 


134  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIA^^CE. 

Spiritual  Religion.     As  a  Baptist,  I  greatly  regret  my  inability  to  be 
present  at  your  gatherings. 

"May  your  meetings  be  full  of  the  jDresence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
of  inspiration  for  future  glorious  service. 

''With  warmest  love,  I  am,  dear  Mr.  Shakespeare, 

''Yours  ever  affectionately, 

"(Sgd.)  Charles  Brown." 


■The  President, 

"The  World's  Baptist  Congress, 

"Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A. 


'5th  April,  1911. 


"COPY  OP  RESOLUTION. 

"That  this  the  Second  Australasian  Baptist  Congress,  consisting  of 
representatives  of  all  the  States  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Dominion 
of  New  Zealand,  sends  its  very  heartiest  greetings  to  the  World  Baptist 
Congress  assembling  in  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A.,  in  June  and  we  gladly  for- 
ward this  greeting  by  the  hand  of  our  Congress  president,  the  Rev.  Alex- 
ander Gordon,  M.  A.,  whom  we  commend  very  heartily  as  a  brother  be- 
loved. 'Receive  him,  therefore,  in  the  Lord  with  all  gladness,  and  hold 
such  in  reputation.'  It  is  the  fervent  prayer  of  this  Congress  that  the 
great  World's  Baptist  Congress  may  be  endowed  with  heavenly  wisdom 
in  dealing  with  great  problems,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  all  its 
utterances,  and  thus  made  a  blessing  to  the  Chui'ch  of  God  throughout  all 
the  world. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  Mr.  President, 

"Yours  in  the  Lord  Jesus, 

"(Sgd.)  P.  W.  Norwood, 

"Hon.  Secretary'." 

The  American  Secretary  was  authorized  to  respond  to  these  greetings. 

Chairman  :  We  have  now  come  in  the  j^rogram  to  the  great  subject 
of  this  Alliance,  "The  Christianizing  of  the  World."  It  is  my  pleasure 
to  introduce  as  the  first  speaker  one  whose  record  in  England  is  known 
to  many  of  us  Americans,  but  not  so  well  as  it  is  there.  The  great  church 
to  which  he  brings  the  message  of  God  in  that  great  covmtry,  I  under- 
stand, is  composed  of  from  one  thousand  two  hundred  to  one  thousand 
four  hundred  members,  noted  far  and  wide  as  the  great  light,  the  evan- 
gelistic church  of  the  region  north  of  London,  and  it  is  from  him  we 
expect  this  morning  to  hear  the  message  "The  Open  Door."     (Applause.) 


Wednesday,  June  21. J     RECOIW  OF  PK0CEEDING8.  135 

THE    CHRISTIANIZING    OF    THE   WORLD.— IN   NON-CHRISTIAN 
LANDS.— THE  OPEN  DOOR. 

By  Rev.  W.  Y.  FULLERTON. 

The  reproach  of  the  Church  oT  Christ  is  that  in  the  t^-entieth  century 
of  the  Christian  era  there  are  yet  in  the  world  non-Christian  lands,  her 
apologj-  that  she  is  beiiinninjj  to  feel  the  reproach.  It  is  scarcely  an  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  in  spite  of  the  compassion  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
there  are  even  now  ninety  and  nine  sheep  in  the  wilderness  and  but  one 
in  the  fold.  When  it  sinks  into  our  consciousness  that  of  the  sixteen 
hundred  millions  on  the  earth,  a  thousand  millions  are  yet  unreached  by 
the  gospel ;  that  millions  of  those  who  have  heard  it  are  not  in  vital  touch 
with  Christ;  and  that  the  multitudes  who  appeal  to  us  are  not  the  same 
multitudes  that  stretched  out  their  hands  in  vain  to  our  forefathers,  the 
work  of  the  Christianizing  of  the  world  will  assume  true  proportions. 

In  the  history  of  the  people  we  seek  to  reach  the  most  startling  thing 
is  that  in  the  ordering  of  God,  through  the  centuries,  the  world  has  been 
divided,  as  we  divide  our  maps,  into  two  hemispheres;  that  the  millions 
of  the  West  have  sought  to  solve  the  problems  of  life  in  one  way,  ob- 
livious of  the  millions  of  the  East,  who  equally  oblivious  of  them,  have 
sought  to  solve  the  problems  in  another.  The  meaning  writ  large  on  this 
bit  of  history^  is  that  for  many  of  man's  needs  there  is  more  than  one 
solution:  we  vaay  well  be  content  without  westernizing  the  East;  we  need 
not  seek  to  denationalize  its  peoples :  their  ways  for  them,  ours  for  us,^ 
let  each  grow  according  to  its  kind.  But  we  cannot  use  that  argument 
when  we  reach  the  realm  of  religion,  here  for  man's  deepest  need  there  is 
but  one  answer;  this  is  not  a  sphere  where  man's  discoveries  and  guesses 
avail,  he  needs  God's  revelation,  and  we  who  know  Christ's  power  and 
perfection,  must  take  to  all  the  Avorld  that  message.  We  have  our  Lord's 
command,  but  even  if  our  Lord  had  given  no  command,  we  should  still 
feel  bound  to  tell  all  the  world  the  news  of  Bethlehem  and  Calvary  and 
Pentecost.  The  compulsion  of  the  Spirit  is  upon  us,  and  all  men  have 
the  right  to  know.  It  is  quite  possible  that  men  who  differ  so  greatly  in 
their  habits,  will  also,  when  they  accept  our  faith,  differ  in  their  concep- 
tion and  expression  of  it.  We  cannot  expect  to  run  all  the  world  into 
our  church  molds,  nor  insist  on  their  adopting  our  modes  of  worship.  It 
is  probable  indeed  that  we  have  yet  to  learn  from  others  how  majestic 
and  manifold  a  thing  the  gospel  is.  The  Lord  has  much  light  and  truth 
to  break  forth  from  His  Holy  Word. 

The  whole  world  is  open.  In  earlier  ages  the  church  excused  herself 
because  it  did  not  seem  possible  to  reach  those  who  sat  in  darkness,  even 
though  the  difficulty  was  largely  created  by  the  church's  earlier  lapse; 
but  when  in  the  eighteenth  century  God  aroused  His  people  to  their  privi- 
lege. He  opened  up  the  way  i'or  them.  ''God  never  makes  half  a  pair  of 
shears."  Door  after  door  was  opened  to  the  message:  country  after 
country  welcomed  the  messengers,  -until  now  there  are  no  doors  at  all  for 
the  walls  are  down.  There  aro  indeed  a  few  lands  where  the  walls 
still  stand  and  where  the  doors  are  shut — Tibet,  Afglianistan,  and  some 
native  Indian  States:  there  are  also  places  where  the  natural  condi- 
tions form  a  barrier — Borneo,  New  Guinea,  the  Amazon  Valley,  the  Solo- 
mon Islands;  but  it  may  be  broadly  said  that  everywhere  in  the  world 


136  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

there  is  no  longer  need  of  doors,  open  or  shut — the  Church  of  Christ  can 
go  where  it  will.     The  world  is  open. 

This  is  true  in  other  than  a  geographical  sense.  The  earth  has  come  to 
a  time  such  as  it  has  not  known  before.  Our  Lord's  saying  on  the  eve 
of  His  crucifixion  is  again  true  :  ' '  Now  is  the  crisis  of  this  world. ' '  Three 
things  have  suddenly  come  to  pass,  each  for  the  first  time. 

The  whole  world  is  known.  There  is  no  unexplored  continent,  no 
un visited  land,  no  untraveled  country :  the  North  Pole  and  the  South  Pole 
have  rendered  up  their  secrets:  man  can  find  a  path  through  the  sea 
and  through  the  air:  the  limits  of  the  world  are  reached,  men  are  ac- 
cessible everywhere  in  the  earth,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that 
men  exist  on  any  other  planet. 

Then  the  whole  world  is  one.  It  is  no  longer  divided  into  two 
hemispheres.  By  its  muscles  of  railway  metal,  and  its  nerves  of  tele- 
graph wire,  by  its  pulsing  waves  of  ether  carrying  messages  over  seas 
and  continents,  and  its  subtler  currents  of  feeling :  by  its  newspapers  and 
its  literature;  the  earth  has  suddenly  become  one  world,  moved  by  com- 
mon impulses,  and  sent  forward  to  a  common  destiny.  Next  month  the 
Universal  Races  Congress  will  assemble  in  London,  a  visible  evidence  of 
the  unity  of  the  human  family. 

And  the  whole  world  is  awake.  This  is  the  third  of  the  three  signs 
that  we  have  reached  the  world's  crisis.  No  longer  is  it  night  with  one 
side  while  it  is  day  with  the  other — the  light  streams  everywhere.  Peo- 
ples that  were  passive  have  stirred  into  life :  nations  that  were  asleep 
have  east  aside  the  sloth  of  ages,  hermit  kingdoms  have  emerged  from 
their  seclusion,  subject  tribes  asserted  their  independence.  Abyssinia 
has  defeated  Italy,  and  Japan  having  conquered  Russia  now  marches  in 
the  van  of  civilization. 

The  crisis  of  the  world  is  the  opportunity  of  the  church.  We  cannot 
afford  to  regard  the  subject  of  missions  any  longer  as  the  specialty  of  a 
few  elect  souls ;  we  dare  no  longer  speak  of  any  part  of  the  great  work  as 
a  foreign  mission.  The  church  has  no  commission  to  any  special  coun- 
try:  where  we  ourselves  find  Christ  is  our  first  sphere,  but  it  is  not  our 
final  sphere.  "If  we  follow  Christ  we  must  follow  Him  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth."  We  are  responsible  for  the  people  we  can  reach, 
not  for  those  beyond  our  influence.  In  every  nation  there  are  some  who 
defy  us  and  some  who  welcome  us.  And  sometimes  it  is  easier  to  reach 
our  neighbor  in  India  than  in  Indiana,  easier  to  win  our  brother  in  Ko- 
rea than  in  Canada,  easier  to  save  the  perishing  in  Uganda  than  in  Brit- 
ain; but  wherever  we  can  reach  men  we  must  tell  them  of  that  Name 
which  causes  in  our  hearts  such  a  nameless  joy.  We  have  as  yet  only 
serA-ed  our  apprenticeship  at  this  work,  and  the  seal  of  God  on  our  ser- 
vice should  fill  us  with  gratitude,  and  impel  us  to  efforts  more  imperial 
and  urgent. 

If  the  spirit  that  rested  upon  the  people  who  heard  Bishop  Westcott's 
great  sermon  at  Cambridge  years  ago,  when  by  five  minates'  silent  prayer 
after  each  he  enforced  his  three  points:  (1)  The  Little  done  in  the  past 
for  missions,  (2)  the  Much  done  by  God  through  our  little,  (3)  the 
Much  More  we  must  do  in  the  future ;  if  the  spirit  that  rested  upon  some 
of  the  unforgettable  sessions  of  the  World  Missionary  Conference  at 
Edinburgh,   rested   upon   the   whole   church,    the   consciousness    of   the 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORl)  OF  I'lfOrh'FDIXGS.  137 

world's  need,  and  the  constraining  power  ot   Christ,  would  force  us  to 
exclaim : 

The  dead  have  been  awakened — shall  I  sleep? 

The  world's  at  war  with  tyrants — shall  I  crouch? 
The  harvest's  ripe — and  shall  I  pause  to  reap? 

I  slumber  not — the  thorn  is  in  my  couch: 
Each  day  a  trumpet  soundeth  in  my  ear, 

Its  echo  in  my  heart. 

Nearest  of  all  non-Cliristian  lands  is  that  which  you  are  severing  from 
your  own  and  changing  into  a  continent — South  America.  It  cannot  in 
any  proper  sense  be  considered  even  nominally  Christian,  for  though  al- 
most through  its  entire  area  Christ  has  been  named,  the  Bible  is  denied 
to  the  people  and  the  power  of  the  gospel  is  unknown.  By  its  geogra- 
phical position  it  may  in  the  coming  time  come  into  relation  with  Africa, 
may  indeed  receive  the  overspill  of  the  population  of  that  continent. 
Remember  that  black  population  doubles  itself  twice  as  fast  as  white. 
It  requires  little  imagination  to  conceive  a  line  of  traffic  across  the  nar- 
rowest part  of  the  Atlantic  between  the  two  continents.  But  in  spite  of 
the  Panama  Canal,  South  America  must  ever  be  associated  with  its  sister 
of  the  North,  not  in  name  only,  but  in  all  neighborly  regard  and  Christly 
service.  In  the  future  these  two  continents  of  the  West  may  vie  with 
each  other  in  showing  forth  God's  glory,  as  through  the  gates  that  you 
are  opening  between  them  shall  pour  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

Africa  so  long  closed  by  its  fever  belt  and  its  marginal  inter-tribal 
strife,  now  is  open  too.  From  its  very  centre  where  lie  the  heart  of 
Livingstone,  the  bodies  of  Hannington  and  Grenfell  and  many  more  of 
God's  heroes,  to  its  utmost  verge,  the  challenge  of  Christ  has  been 
given.  The  statue  of  Gordon  of  Khartoum,  faces  towards  the  desert, 
and  the  statue  of  Lavigerie  stands  sentinel  at  Biskra,  waiting  for  the 
time  when  along  the  four  great  strings  of  God's  Ebony  Harp  the  music 
of  the  gospel  shall  vibrate  to  His  praise.  To  the  North  by  the  Nile,  to 
the  South  by  the  Niger,  to  the  East  by  the  Zambesi,  and  to  the  West  by 
the  Congo — the  Congo  which  has  in  our  own  day  carried  such  discords 
to  the  sea. 

True,  there  is  the  Mohammedan  resistance,  the  problem  of  faith  di- 
vorced from  morality,  and  bigotry  allied  with  ignorance.  At  the  junc- 
tion of  the  three  continents  this  power  is  entrenched,  and  fifty  years 
ago  it  seemed  as  if  its  defences  were  impregnable,  but  God  has  arisen  and 
His  enemies  shall  be  scattered.  Islam  may  defy  Christ,  but  its  Cres- 
cent is  waning  before  the  Cross.  The  lands  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Eu- 
phrates are  being  awakened  after  the  sleep  of  centuries,  and  from  Mo- 
rocco to  Persia,  and  from  the  Soudan  to  Stamboul,  the  conquering  light 
has  entered,  and  the  dawn  shall  shine  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day. 

Britain  owes  it  to  your  forefathers  that  her  energies  were  turned  to 
India  when  her  hope  of  founding  a  great  colony  in  the  West  was  disap- 
pointed, though  it  is  no  accident  in  history  that  Canada  and  India  fell 
to  her  lot  in  almost  the  same  day.  You  sent  us  as  rudely  from  your 
shore  as  we  sent  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  from  ours,  but  both  of  these  dis- 
courtesies wrought  out  God's  plan.  Guided  by  the  hand  that  opens  the 
seals  we  have  entered  into  the  land  of  romance — the  land   of  Carey, 


138  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Martyn,  Duff,  Wilson,  Heber,  Seudder:  a  land  that  slopes  to  the  sun- 
rising,  that  swarms  with  village  peoples,  having  in  its  whole  extent  only 
twenty-eight  cities  with  as  many  as  a  hundred  thousand  people,  guarded 
by  its  northern  mountains,  where  in  the  Trans-Himalayan  solitudes  lies 
the  holy  lake  of  Manasarowar,  and  rise  the  four  great  rivers  of  the  land — 
the  Indus,  the  Brahmaputra,  the  Sutlej,  and  the  Ganges — while  west  and 
east  it  is  washed  by  sunny  southern  seas. 

Concerning  its  peoples  I  may  quote  the  words  of  the  late  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Bengal,  Sir  Andrew  Fraser:  "These  non-Christian  races  are 
no  more  negligible.  They  were  asleep  and  remote  from  our  civilization. 
Improved  communications  have  made  them  our  neighbors ;  and  contact 
with  our  civilization  has  awakened  them  from  the  sleep  of  centuries. 
They  already  have  their  influence  on  ourselves :  that  influence  will  grow. 
As  they  become  more  civilized  and  more  conscious  of  their  power,  they 
will,  with  their  teeming  millions  and  incalculable  resources,  exercise  an 
influence  on  the  future  of  our  race  which  it  is  impossible  to  estimate. 
To  me  it  seems  that  to  give  them  civilization  without  Christianity  is  to 
withhold  that  to  which  our  civilization  owes  all  that  is  best  in  it,  and  by 
which  alone  it  can  be  kept  pure  and  healthful.  They  cannot  adhere  to 
their  own  religions ;  they  are  breaking  away  from  them ;  and  yet  manj'  of 
the  best  of  them  realize  the  necessity  of  religion  for  worthy  and  benefi- 
cent life.  To  leave  them  without  religion  may  make  them  a  probable 
source  of  danger  in  the  future  history  of  the  race. 

"It  is  felt,  not  by  Christians  only,  but  also  by  Hindus  and  Moham- 
medans throughout  India,  that  religion  is  necessary  to  the  healthy  life 
of  the  people.  This  partly  explains  the  Hindu  revival  which  has  re- 
cently attracted  considerable  attention.  There  are  those  who  regard 
this  revival  as  the  answer  of  the  non-Christian  faith  to  Christianity.  So 
far  as  it  is  genuine,  it  seems  to  me  just  as  much  the  protest  of  naturally 
religious  races  against  the  secular  education  and  materialism  now  .pre- 
vailing in  schools  and  colleges.  It  is  to  some  extent  the  genuine  expres- 
sion of  the  reluctance  with  which  the  orthodox  Hindus  see  the  religious 
beliefs  of  their  fathers  dissipated  by  Western  education  and  enlighten- 
ment, while  nothing  is  supplied  in  their  stead  to  meet  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious wants  of  our  common  humanity. 

"There  has  been  some  talk  of  dropping  the  educated  and  turning  ex- 
clusively to  the  lower  orders,  because  the  former  have  refused  the  call. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  this  view.  Some  of  the  best  Indian  Christians 
whom  I  have  known  have  been  educated  in  our  colleges,  and  have  be- 
longed to  the  learned  professions;  and,  whether  as  laymen  or  as  mission 
agents,  they  have  exercised  a  far  more  powerful  influence  in  supporting 
and  spreading  the  Church  of  Christ  among  their  fellow  countrymen  than 
other  Indian  Christians  have  been  able  to  do.  Let  us  by  all  means  have 
the  gospel  preached  to  the  poor;  but  let  us  also  aim  at  securing  for  the 
church  the  learning  and  influence  of  the  best  class  of  Indians.  In  our 
enthusiasm  for  the  salvation  of  blind  beggars,  let  us  not  overlook  the  pos- 
sibility of  enlisting  a  St.  Paul." 

To  the  same  purpose  Mr.  Justice  Robertson,  of  the  Punjab  University, 
says:  "The  church  has  not  done  its  duty  to  India.  India  wants  Christ, 
and  without  Him  it  will  not  be  able  to  govern  itself."  While  Sir  Nara- 
yan  Chandavararkar,  Judge  of  High  Court  of  Bombay  and  Vice  Chancel- 
lor of  its  University,  wrote  no  later  than  last  April:  "To  understand 
clearly  the  best  that  is  in  our  Hindu  Scriptures,  to  enter  fully  into  the 


Wednesday.  June  21.1      UKCOUD  OF  PROCEEDIXGl^.  139 

spirit  of  their  grand  ideals  and  teactiings,  we  must  have  the  help  of  the 
Bible." 

Beyond,  is  the  Far  East,  where  lie  at  once  the  greatest  triumph,  the 
greatest  opportunity,  and  the  greatest  peril  of  the  day — Japan  by  the 
annexation  of  Korea  now  touches  frontiers  with  China.  China  by  creat- 
ing Tibet  a  province  of  the  Empire  marches  side  by  side  with  India.  But 
India  is  Britain,  and  greater  Britain  over  tlie  Sea  inipiiiges  on  the  United 
States,  which  in  its  turn  stretches  out  its  hand  to  the  Philippines,  and  so 
Cliina  and  Japan  lie  to-day  between  Russia  and  the  Saxon  nations.  The 
great  Christian  question  of  the  immediate  future  is  whetlier  China  and 
Japan  and  Korea  are  likely  to  be  Christianized  in  the  present  generation, 
or  are  they,  like  India,  in  casting  off  their  ancient  faiths  with  their  an- 
cient customs,  to  become  materialized.  The  destiny  of  the  world  depends 
on  the  answer. 

Korea  bids  fair  to  eclipse  us  all  in  its  adherence  to  Christ.  There  at 
least  we  may  look  for  a  Christianized  nation,  whose  sorrows  have  driven 
it  for  succor  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  whose  faith  bids  fair  to 
make  it  Christ 's  witness  both  to  China  and  Japan.  Its  story  recalls  the 
primitive  church,  in  its  eagerness  of  the  people  to  receive  the  message  of 
the  gospel,  its  submission  of  their  minds  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  its  ex- 
perience of  the  reality  of  prayer,  not  only  as  a  privilege  but  as  a  method 
of  work,  and  its  enthusiasm  for  the  spreading  of  the  glad  news  among  its 
own  countrymen.  The  Korean  plan  of  contributing  time  as  well  as  money 
is  notable.  The  collection  in  one  district  amounted  to  no  less  than 
67,000  days  to  be  devoted  to  the  definite  service  of  Christ  in  evangelistic 
work,  equal  to  the  service  of  one  missionary  for  about  300  years. 
Church-members  suspend  their  business,  leave  their  homes,  and  travel 
far  and  wide  to  tell  their  countrymen  of  the  wonderful  news  of  Jesus; 
and  there  seems  to  be  such  a  pervading  power  of  God's  Spirit,  that  a 
thing  almost  unknown  before  happens — people  receive  the  gospel  the  first 
time  they  hear  it.  Recently  a  business  man  came  to  his  church  with  a 
confession,  that  having  promised  to  give  180  days  in  the  year,  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  Aveather  prevented  him  giving  more  than  169  days,  and  he 
begged  to  be  forgiven!  We  w'ho  give  our  spare  hall-hours  and  our  sur- 
plus half-dollars  to  the  spread  of  Christ's  kingdom  may  well  feel  re- 
buked, even  while  we  offer  praise  for  this  Pentecost  in  Korea. 

Japan  is  in  another  stage  of  development.  There  never  has  been  there 
such  manifestation  of  grace  as  in  Korea,  and  Christianity  has  now  been 
long  enough  in  the  land  to  face  the  problem  of  the  second  generation. 
Independent  in  government  and  able  to  provide  themselves  with  educa- 
tion and  medicine,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  Japanese  are  also  seeking 
independence  in  their  church  life.  It  still  remains  for  us  to  provide 
Christian  education  of  the  highest  kind,  but  there  is  no  call  for  medical 
missions  in  Japan.  Already  the  Methodists  have  ordained  the  first  mod- 
ern Eastern  Bishop — Bishop  Honda,  who  commends  himself  to  all  his 
countrymen  as  well  as  to  his  brethren  the  missionaries,  as  a  capable  and 
Christian  leader.  But  the  simultaneous  problem  of  self-sutficing  churches 
and  dependent  missions  is  a  really  complex  one,  only  to  be  solved  by  time 
and  patience.  Meanwhile  vast  areas  of  Jaj^an  are  open  to  the  evangelistic 
appeal.  The  Salvation  Army  is  perhaps  the  most  honored  aggressive 
force,  but  all  the  churches  are  represented,  and  although  early  condi- 
tions tended  to  centralize  the  missionaries  in  the  large  cities  rather  than 
in   the  countrv  districts,  excellent   work  is  being  done.     The  American 


140  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

• 

Baptists  are  rendering  splendid  service,  but  their  English  brethren,  after 
a  spasmodic  effort,  found  themselves  unable  to  add  Japan  to  the  other 
spheres  occupied  by  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society.  Still  the  brief  ser- 
vice of  a  single  missionary  could  not  have  been  without  some  result,  for 
after  his  withdrawal,  a  Japanese  woman  was  found  in  the  district  where 
the  mission  had  been  situated  inquiring  'Hhe  way  to  the  place  where 
they  mended  broken  hearts." 

In  China  the  opportunity  is  unexampled  in  the  history  of  the  centuries. 
There  we  have  at  least  four  hundred  millions  of  people  ready  to  listen 
to  everything  we  can  tell  them,  and  chiefly  anxious  at  the  moment  to  learn 
the  English  language :  they  look  to  that  as  a  passport  to  the  wealth  of  the 
world.  Their  eagerness  is  inspiring  and  pathetic,  and  the  unreadiness  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  is  as  pathetic  and  lamentable.  China  in  contrast 
to  India  is  an  empire  of  cities — walled  cities,  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  of  which  have  been  entered  by  the  mission  forces  of  the  church, 
leaving  at  least  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-four  unreached. 
Where  every  printed  page  is  held  sacred  and  scholars  are  to  be  found  in 
every  nook  and  corner,  the  call  for  Christian  literature  is  clamant;  the 
people  are  already  reading  novels,  science  books,  and  revolutionary  pam- 
phlets, and  a  vast  number  of  newspapers  are  in  turn  enlightening  and 
darkening  their  minds.  Where  the  nation  stands  ready  to  follow  its 
leaders,  many  of  whom  by  industry  and  learning  have  risen  from  their 
ranks,  and  where  these  leaders  are  ready  to  listen  to  the  gospel,  the  con- 
tention of  Dr.  Timothy  Richard,  that  special  efforts  should  be  made  to 
reach  the  officials  and  literati,  becomes  cogent  and  forceful.  Where  the 
people  are  themselves  eager  to  be  taught,  and  present  to  the  preachers 
of  the  gospel  a  virile,  intelligent  and  responsive  nature,  full  of  potential 
emotion,  capable,  as  they  proved  in  the  killing  year  of  1900,  of  heroic  de- 
votion, and  of  intense  spiritual  fervor  as  they  proved  in  the  recent  time 
of  revival,  no  effort  should  now  be  spared  to  reach  them,  lest  the  day 
of  opportunity  should  pass  away  as  quickly  as  it  has  come. 

The  great  economic  problem  of  the  future  will  be  the  entrance  of  China 
into  the  competition  of  the  world.  We  may  exclude  the  Chinese  from 
our  countries,  but  we  cannot  banish  them  from  their  own,  and  there,  in  a 
few  years  they  will  add  to  their  ancient  civilization  a  full  knowledge  of 
our  Western  inventions  and  methods,  and  with  an  unexampled  industry, 
ability  to  live  on  what  would  be  considered  by  us  the  merest  pittance; 
and  with  stores  of  minerals  easily  reached,  (in  Shansi  alone  there  is  said 
to  be  coal  enough  to  supply  the  whole  world  for  two  thousand  years)  they 
will  outdistance  the  men  of  the  West  in  commercial  rivalry.  When 
with  all  these  forces  and  qualities  and  advantages  they  meet  the  rest  of 
the  world,  the  impact  cannot  but  be  cataclysmal.  The  competition  be- 
tween the  workers  of  the  East  and  the  workers  of  the  West  is  likely  to 
put  a  strain  on  us  that  will  be  difficult  to  bear.  Whether  it  will  be  less 
or  more  severe  depends  on  the  development  of  the  Chinese  themselves, 
whether  their  wants  will  increase  in  ratio  with  their  productivity :  their 
character  keep  pace  with  their  appliances.  It  will  be  well  for  both  peo- 
ples if  the  principles  of  Christ  permeate  both  before  the  inevitable  en- 
counter comes. 

That  the  Chinese  are  intensely  in  earnest  in  their  efforts  of  reform  is 
proved  by  the  almost  miraculous  reduction  in  the  production  of  opium  in 
their  country  during  the  past  three  years.  They  have  rebuked  the  scep- 
ticism of  cynics,  both  in  India  and  England,  and  have  surely  manifested 


\\e(lnesday,  June  21.]     REVOIW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  141 

their  right  to  have  the  importation  of  the  drug  abolished  at  once,  no 
matter  at  what  cost.  Those  who  know  human  nature  will  not  imagine 
that  all  China 's  ills  will  disappear  with  opium ;  there  are  not  wanting 
signs  that  new  evils  may  take  the  place  of  the  old  one,  but  we  may  hope 
that  no  new  evil  will  be  so  widespread  and  so  deeply  seated  as  opium 
smoking  has  been,  and  certainly  nothing  can  be  worse. 

Those  who  are  best  entitled  to  speak  assure  us  that  Chinese  life  is  ghot 
through  and  through  with  sensuality  and  vice,  that  in  spite  of  its  ex- 
cellent maxims  and  inimitable  courtesy,  it  is  ruled  by  fear — fear  of  rul- 
ers and  of  spirits,  of  themselves  and  of  foreigners;  that  even  when  it 
sees  the  reform  that  is  necessary  it  lacks  enough  men  of  sufficient  probity 
and  honesty  to  effect  it.  China  calls  for  deliverance  from  its  vices  and 
from  its  fears,  and  it  waits  the  power  to  enable  it  to  do  the  good  it 
knows,  and  in  all  the  world  there  is  but  one  answer. 

All  China's  martyrs  did  not  die  in  1900;  manj'  are  living  there  to-day 
who  die  daily.  But  the  thousands  of  martyr  graves  dug  at  that  time 
claimed  China  for  Christ.  At  T'ai  yuan  fu,  the  great  martyr  city  of  the 
world,  beside  Chinese  witnesses  fifty-three  men,  women  and  children  of 
the  West  in  one  day  laid  down  their  lives  for  their  Master  in  a  slaughter 
so  determined  and  indiscriminate,  that  one  man  in  the  city  was  killed  for 
possessing  a  box  of  Swedish  matches.  Though  Yu  Hsien,  the  agent  of 
the  Dowager  Empress  in  this  butchery,  reported  to  her:  "Your  Majesty's 
slave  caught  them  as  in  a  net,  and  allowed  neither  chicken  nor  dog  to  es- 
cape," three  Chinese  Christians  somehow  survived  the  general  massacre, 
and  while  the  ground  was  still  red  with  martyr  blood,  and  the  streets 
were  still  thronged  by  hysterical  people,  Lui,  Han,  and  Chang,  met  to- 
gether, determined  that  the  worship  must  not  cease,  and  they  sang  their 
hymns,  read  the  Scriptures,  and  prayed  to  the  God  of  Heaven  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  I  could  wish  that  some  great  artist  could  put 
the  scene  on  canvas;  it  would  be  an  impressive  picture.  We  saw  two  of 
these  men  in  our  recent  visit  to  China,  and  I  am  persuaded  that,  though 
the  promise  of  Christ  has  often  been  fulfilled,  "where  two  or  three  are 
met  in  My  Name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them,"  it  never  had  a  more 
signal  fulfilment  than  in  that  little  group  of  saints  in  that  far-off  city  at 
that  martyr  time. 

The  Church  of  Christ  must  not  be  so  ungrateful  to  that  memory  of 
her  martyrs  as  the  Empress  of  China  was  to  the  chief  instrument  of  the 
martyrdoms,  but  we  may  be  as  quick  to  see  the  urgency  of  the  situation. 
It  is  said  that  during  the  flight  of  the  court,  when  the  Empress  met  the 
Governor  of  T'ai  yuan  fu  in  his  own  city,  she  coolly  informed  him  that 
the  price  of  coffins  w'as  rising,  a  brutal  hint  that  the  sooner  he  was  in 
his  coffin  the  less  the  expense  was  likely  to  be. 

Urgency  is  the  note  of  missions  everywhere,  but  especially  in  China. 
The  Chinese  Christians  are  themselves  prepared  to  close  up  their  ranks 
the  better  to  represent  Christ  in  their  native  land,  and  they  appeal  to  us 
in  the  West  to  make  haste  and  settle  our  differences  lest  we  hinder  them. 
They  are  prepared  to  receive  many  more  emissaries  from  the  Western 
churches,  but  unless  the  multitudes  outside  our  ranks  who  believe  in 
Christ  actively  support  our  churches,  it  is  unlikely  that  we  shall  be  able 
to  send  the  reinforcements  they  demand.  Apart  from  the  Church  of 
Christ,  there  is  no  hope  for  missions  in  non-Christian  countries;  there- 
fore the  call  of  China  indirectly  to  those  who  hold  aloof  from  organized 
Christianity  in  our  own  lands  is  first  to  join   the  church,  and  then  to 


142  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

strengthen  the  ranks  of  her  ambassadors  abroad.  The  Far  East  has  also 
an  appeal  on  behalf  of  social  reform :  it  was  the  state  of  the  cities  of 
Christendom  that  prevented  Japan  from  adopting  Christianity  as  its  na- 
tional religion.  China  calls  iis,  therefore,  to  apply  our  religion  to  our 
civic  and  national  life,  for  if  she  accepts  the  faith  of  Christ  she  will  ac- 
cept it  in  a  spirit  of  patriotism,  looking  for  the  blessing  of  China  as  well 
as  for  individual  salvation.  She  very  naturally  asks  us  to  lead  the  way. 
No  nation  is  more  likely  to  move  in  a  mass.  Many  times  it  has  been 
swayed  by  impulses  that  have  gripped  the  whole  population.  If  by  the 
might  of  the  Holy  Spirit  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Empire  to-day  were 
won  for  Christ,  they  might  well  become  the  apostle  of  their  country. 

As  in  every  land  the  hope  of  China  lies  with  her  own  people.  At  best 
the  Western  missionaries  can  only  prepare  the  way,  and  guide  the  fu- 
ture leaders  into  it.  Perhaps  the  most  hopeful  sign  is  that  leaders  are 
emerging  from  the  Chinese  themselves.  There  are  great  movements 
among  the  common  people,  as  with  the  Miaos  in  the  Far  West  where 
thousands  have  suddenly  turned  to  the  Lord,  but  there  is  also  a  great 
movement  amongst  the  students  of  the  land,  and  numbers  of  these  have 
dedicated  their  lives  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  Amongst  the  leaders  is 
Ting-le-mei,  a  native  of  Shantung.  Because  of  his  Christian  character 
and  influence  he  was  unanimously  chosen  as  the  first  President  of  the 
Federation  of  Churches  in  his  own  Province.  In  the  Boxer  time  he  was 
imprisoned,  but  he  thanks  God  for  two  great  mercies  of  his  prison  days. 
First,  he  was  allowed  to  keep  his  New  Testament  and  pencil,  and  sec- 
ondly he  was  almost  daily  moved  from  one  room  to  another  so  that  he 
was  able  to  witness  constantly  to  new  people.  Two  years  ago  Ting  vis- 
ited the  college  in  Wei-hsien,  where  the  English  Baptists  join  the  Ameri- 
can Presbyterians  in  arts  training,  and  as  a  result  of  his  appeal  one  hun- 
dred and  eighteen  of  the  students  devoted  themselves  to  the  work  ol 
the  ministry.  Only  those  Avho  know  the  conditions  of  Chinese  life  can 
quite  understand  what  this  means.  These  young  men  are  in  most  cases 
the  hope  of  their  families,  who  often  mortgage  the  future  to  allow  them 
to  gain  this  education,  looking  for  a  return  when,  as  a  result  of  the  edu- 
cation, lucrative  posts  shall  be  gained  in  the  schools  or  under  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  salary  in  these  employments  will  in  many  cases  be  twenty 
times  as  much  as  they  can  hope  to  receive  as  pastors  or  evangelists,  and 
yet,  disappointing  the  hopes  of  their  friends,  and  sacrificing  the  prestige 
and  comparative  luxury  within  their  reach,  these  men  have  solemnly 
promised  to  be  preachers  and  teachers  of  the  gospel,  embracing  poverty 
and  persecution  for  the  sake  of  the  Name.  Last  year  when  Ting-le-mei 
visited  Peking  five  hundred  and  one  more  took  upon  themselves  a  simi- 
lar vow.  These  are  the  men  who  are  the  hope  of  China;  they  are  God's 
inconspicuous  heroes.  Into  the  vaRey  of  death  ride  the  six  hundred.  God 
speed  them,  and  give  them  the  victory ! 

It  only  remains  to  ask  what  the  Baptists  are  doing  to  reach  these  open 
lands.  For  to  us  with  our  present  privileges,  it  may  be  said  as  General 
Beckwith  said  to  the  Waldenses  when  their  political  restrictions  were  re- 
moved :  ' '  Old  things  are  passed  away,  and  new  ones  are  beginning  to  open 
up.  Henceforward  you  are  either  missionaries  or  nothing."  In  the 
United  States  you  set  a  worthy  example;  your  ten  missionary  societies 
have  an  aggregate  income  of  £1,000  a  day — £365,000  a  year.  But,  to 
quote  Madame  de  Stael :  ''You'are  the  advance  guard  of  the  human  race, 
you  are  the  future  of  the  world."     The  English  Baptists  give  about  a 


Wednesday,  June  21.]      RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  143 

third  as  much,  and  including  Canada,  Australia,  Africa,  Germany,  and 
Sweden,  the  total  expenditure  of  the  BajDtists  of  the  world  on  missions 
in  non-Christian  lands,  seems  to  be  about  £525.000  a  year.  Would  it  not 
be  a  worthy  ambition  to  increase  this  amount  to  a  million  pounds  a  year  1 

When  a  hundred  and  four  years  ago  the  first  Protestant  missionary 
to  China  i^assed  through  New  York  a  pompous  individual  said  to  him : 
''And  so.  Dr.  Morrison,  you  hope  to  make  an  impression  on  the  great 
Empire  of  China,  do  you?"  With  much  dignity  Morrison  replied:  "No, 
but  I  expect  God  will."  His  expectation  has  been  abundantly  justified, 
and  Griffith  John,  one  of  the  greatest  of  China's  missionaries  to-day, 
shall  speak  as  to  the  future:  "Many  look  upon  the  attempt  to  Christian- 
ize people  like  the  Chinese,  Hindus  and  Japanese  as  futile.  During  a 
missionary  career  of  over  fifty  years  I  have  seen  much.  The  field  in 
which  I  have  been  working  is  not  only  the  largest,  but  taking  it  all  in  all, 
the  most  difficult.  And  yet  my  convictions  with  regard  to  the  divinity 
of  the  work  and  its  final  triumph,  are  stronger  now  than  they  were  when 
I  first  came  to  China.  I  never  realized  more  firmly  than  I  do  to-day  that 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and 
of  His  Christ." 

Let  us  but  meet  an  open  world  with  open  hearts  and  with  open  purses, 
and  God  shall  speed  the  triumph. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman  :  We  have  with  us  this  morning  one  who  is  known  not  only 
over  the  Southland  as  a  most  devoted  and  eloquent  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ,  but  one  who  has  given  distinguished  service  in  the 
direction  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion.    Rev.  R.  J.  Willingham  will  now  address  you. 


IN  THE   CHRISTIANIZING  OF  THE  WORLD  WHAT   CO-OPERA- 
TION SHOULD  WE  AS  BAPTISTS  HAVE  IN  FOREIGN 
MISSION  WORK? 

By  R.  J.  WILLINGHAM,  D.  D. 
Richmond,  Va. 

In  speaking  to-day  to  you,  representatives  of  the  Lord's  Kingdom 
from  all  portions  of  the  world,  let  me  relate  this  little  incident.  Years 
ago  on  a  ship  in  mid-ocean  two  gentlemen  from  different  countries  tried 
to  speak  to  each  other.  They  tried  one  language  after  another,  but 
neither  one  could  understand  the  language  used  by  the  other.  Finally 
it  occurred  to  one  of  them  that  perhaps  the  other  man  understood  some- 
thing in  the  language  of  Zion.  With  this  happy  thought  in  his  mind, 
his  face  brightened  as  he  said — "Alleluia" — which  means  in  all  lan- 
guages where  God's  Word  is  known — Praise  ye  the  Lord.  Immediately 
the  other  man's  face  lighted  up  as  he  answered  heartily — "Amen" — 
which  means  in  all  languages — So  let  it  be.  They  found  out  that  they 
were  lovers  together  of  the  same  Great,  Eternal  God,  and  this  made 
them  love  each  other.  To-day  as  we  come  together,  brethren  in  Christ 
from  all  portions  of  the  earth,  I  feel  it  in  my  heart  to  say — Alleluia — 
and  I  know  that  you  will  heartily  respond  from  all  over  this  house — 


144  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Amen.  The  work  in  which  we  are  engaged  is  the  Lord's.  It  is  ours, 
only  as  we  are  His  and  working  in  it  for  His  glory.  He  looked  from 
heaven  on  a  lost  world,  and  through  love  planned  for  its  redemption. 
His  world-purpose  found  expression  in  the  gift  of  His  Son  from  heaven, 
and  when  that  Son  was  called  back  to  glory,  He  gave  His  Holy  Spirit, 
but  at  the  same  time  called  upon  His  people  to  carry  forward  His  King- 
dom into  all  the  world. 

There  have  been  three  ages  for  this  work.  First — The  Age  of  Pre- 
paration. From  the  remote  past  God  was  preparing  the  way  for  the 
coming  of  His  Kingdom.  Hints  were  given  to  Abraham  and  through 
the  prophets.  These  foretold  the  coming  of  His  Son.  When  "the  ful- 
ness of  time  had  come,"  God  sent  His  Son,  and  the  coming  of  Christ  on 
the  earth  began  the  Second  Age.  From  His  birth  until  His  ascension 
He  was  setting  up  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  His  first  recorded  words, 
"Know  you  not  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business"  were  the  key- 
note of  all  of  His  life-work.  When  He  was  about  to  depart  to  heaven. 
He  told  His  disciples  of  the  coming  of  His  Holy  Spirit.  He  made  promise 
to  them  of  the  abiding  presence  of  His  Spirit,  and  went  to  heaven,  and 
so  the  Second  Age  was  finished.  The  Third  Age  was  ushered  in  at  Pen- 
tecost— the  Spirit  of  God  came  with  power.  Men  who  were  weak,  timid, 
and  afraid  were  made  strong,  bold,  and  powerful.  The  gift  of  tongues 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  meant  to  preach  the  word  in  all  languages,  and  our 
work  extends  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth.  He  comes  to  help  us. 
What  we  need  in  our  churches  to-day  is  God's  Holy  Spirit.  The  devil 
wishes  to  mummify  our  church-members.  Our  people  need  to  awake  out 
of  Ezekiel's  Valley  of  Bones  and  to  put  on  flesh  and  sinew  for  God's 
great  work.  With  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  there  was  power  to  preach 
and  there  was  liberality  in  gifts.  We  are  living  in  the  age  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  What  we  need  is  to  submit  to  Him  for  the  work  to  which  God 
has  called  us. 

The  greatest  work  to-day  on  earth  is  the  setting  up  of  God 's  Kingdom, 
— winning  the  world  for  Christ.  No  other  compares  with  it.  The  enter- 
prises of  men  fall  into  insignificance  compared  with  this.  Wonderful 
changes  are  taking  place  in  the  world.  These  have  been  mighty  and  far- 
reaching  in  the  last  fifty  years.  Locked  nations,  such  as  China,  Japan, 
Korea,  the  Philippines  and  many  others  have  been  thrown  wide  open. 
Languages  have  been  learned  and  God's  word  put  into  them,  until  now 
over  five  hundred  are  resonant  with  God's  truth.  Old  nations  like 
China  are  waking  up.  Greater  changes  have  come  in  China  in  the  last 
decade  than  in  former  centuries.  Thousands  are  turning  to  God.  Ko- 
rea, the  hermit  nation,  seems  to  be  one  of  those  referred  to  in  prophecy, 
where  it  says, — A  nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day.  India  for  centuries 
cursed  with  war  came  under  the  sway  of  the  greatest  Christian  nation, 
England,  and  has  for  fifty  years  remained  in  a  state  of  peace,  getting 
ready  for  the  King  of  Peace.  The  Isles  of  the  Ocean  are  waiting  for 
the  Lord.  God's  Spirit  has  been  working  mightily.  Thousands  of  men 
and  women  have  gone  out  to  earrj-  the  blessed  truth.  Millions  have  been 
poured  into  the  treasury  of  the  Lord,  and  the  work  has  only  fairly  begun. 
Those  who  live  for  the  next  generation  will  see  marvels  of  grace  that  we 
do  not  even  dream  of  to-day. 

In  carrying  forward  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  Christians  of  different 
names  and  orders  have  gone  out  to  the  foreign  field  trying  to  win  this 
world  for  our  Lord.     The  question  comes  to  the  front — Can  we  co-oper- 


■Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  145 

ate  with  them,  and  if  so,  how  far?  There  are  certain  principles  which 
we  as  Baptists  hold,  believing  that  they  come  from  God's  Holy  Word. 
AVe  have  stood  for  these  in  different  portions  of  the  earth.  Can  we  turn 
away  from  them  in  foreign  lands  where  we  are  doing  mission  work? 
Policies  change  from  time  to  time,  but  principles  never.  God's  truth 
is  eternal,  and  what  we  hold  and  practise  in  the  home  land,  we  should 
hold  in  foreign  lands,  or  else  give  them  up  entirely.  Let  us  remember 
that  the  Lord  in  departing  told  His  followers  not  only  to  disciple  and 
to  baptize,  but  to  teach  all  men  all  things  which  He  had  taught  to  them. 
There  was  to  be  no  difference  whether  in  Jerusalem,  Judea,  Samaria,  or 
in  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth.  God's  word  is  the  standard  for  all 
men,  and  strict,  emphatic  obedience  to  that  must  ever  be  our  watchword. 
It  was  given  for  all  men  in  all  countries  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  There 
can  be  no  amendment,  and  there  should  be  no  omission. 

Other  denominations  agree  with  us  in  certain  great  doctrines,  such  as 
the  personality  of  God,  heinousness  of  sin,  divinity  of  Christ,  atonement 
through  Him,  salvation  by  faith,  the  necessity  of  good  works  as  a  result 
of  faith,  resurrection  of  the  dead,  general  judgment,  future  reward  and 
punishment;  but  there  are  some  teachings  of  the  Avord  which  must  be 
earnestly  presented,  and  which  by  some  denominations  have  not  received 
proper  emphasis.  I  have  not  time  to  discuss  all  of  these.  I  refer  to  such 
points  as  these :  the  sole  authority  of  God 's  Word ;  the  individual  respon- 
sibility of  each  soul ;  the  imperative  necessity  for  each  one  to  act  in  relig- 
ion for  himself ;  the  necessity  of  regeneration  on  the  part  of  each  human 
being;  no  ordinance  or  ceremony  taking  the  place  of  repentance  and 
faith;  obedience  following  repentance,  which  leads  us  into  the  church, 
and  the  keeping  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Lord ;  the  necessity  of  each 
church  standing  faithful  to  the  Lord  and  to  His  work;  the  entire  sep- 
aration of  Church  and  State.  I  wish  that  we  had  time  here  to  discuss 
these  points,  for  even  some  of  our  own  people  have  not  yet  fully  real- 
ized their  importance.  Referring  to  the  doctrine  of  a  regenerated 
church-membership,  we  are  sorry  that  even  in  our  own  land  certain 
churches  are  not  so  careful  as  they  should  be.  Let  it  be  distinctly  un- 
derstood that  we  follow  Christ  in  His  ordinances  not  in  order  to  be 
saved  but  because  we  are  saved,  and  that  we  glory  in  obeying  Him.  It 
is  difficult  in  foreign  lands  to  get  the  people  to  understand  that  the 
Church  and  State  are  entirely  separate.  Even  the  great  government,  of 
England  has  not  yet  learned  this  doctrine,  and  many  in  America  have 
been  slow  to  learn  it.  The  Roman  Catholic  wants  to  put  all  government 
under  the  Church,  the  Anglican  to  put  all  the  Church  under  government. 
In  China  one  cause  of  the  Boxer  Uprising  was  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
had  succeeded  in  having  laws  passed  which  put  their  Church  officials  on 
a  footing  with  government  officers,  and  thus  trouble  was  brought  on. 
The  disasters  of  the  Boxer  Movement  followed,  and  yet  it  was  better 
that  the  unholy  arrangement  should  have  been  broken  up  though  ter- 
rible trials  had  to  come.  May  the  bondage  and  blight  which  come  from 
union  of  Church  and  State  never  be  inflicted  upon  heathen  lands 
through  so-called  Christian  teaching.  The  Baptists  have  stood  against 
such  unholy  relationship,  and  must  let  men  know  everywhere  that  they 
are  free  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
sciences, no  one  having  the  right  to  molest  or  make  them  afraid.  This  is 
not  the  time  for  us  to  sun-ender  these  glorious  principles  in  order  that 
we  may  affiliate  with  others.    We  must  not  minimize  or  set  aside  any  of 

10 


146  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  blessed  teachings  of  our  Lord.  His  teachings  are  the  best  for  all 
men  in  all  the  world.  The  great  danger  is  not  in  our  holding  truth  ear- 
nestly and  faithfully,  but  in  our  being  lukewarm  and  indifferent.  Let 
us  love  all  men  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  help  everyone  who  wishes 
to  tell  of  our  Saviour,  but  while  doing  so,  we  must  be  faithful  to  our 
Lord. 

In  many  ways  we  can  co-operate  with  other  Christians.  This  we  are 
doing  in  the  home  land,  and  we  can  also  do  the  same  in  foreign  lands. 
We  work  together,  pray  and  preach,  and  try  to  help  souls  onward  in  the 
way  of  God.  Notwithstanding  the  differences  of  belief,  in  many  respects 
we  can  help  others  who  are  trying  to  advance  the  Kingdom  of  our  Sa- 
viour. On  the  foreign  fields  we  have  co-operation.  Those  who  have 
been  there  have  been  struck  with  how  the  different  missionaries  help 
each  other.  While  the  principles  we  hold  keep  us  from  organic  union, 
yet  we  can  work  with  His  Book  for  our  common  guide,  and  with  the 
salvation  of  souls  and  the  upbuilding  of  His  Kingdom  as  our  common 
aim.  The  missionaries  co-operate  by  conferring  together  about  vexed 
questions  which  they  must  all  meet  in  foreign  lands.  They  co-operate 
to  a  certain  extent  in  publishing  much  needed  tracts  and  books.  A 
movement  is  on  hand  at  this  time  among  different  denominations  to  pub- 
lish together  Dr.  Broadus's  great  book — "The  Preparation  and  Delivery 
of  Sermons. ' '  Other  books  on  which  these  denominations  can  unite  will 
likewise  soon  be  published.  Much  literature  which  can  be  used  in  com- 
mon is  already  being  published.  The  foreign  nations  are  reading  more 
than  ever.  The  question  is — Shall  they  be  supplied  with  the  books  of 
skeptics,  atheists  and  infidels,  or  shall  we  who  love  the  Lord  put  Chris- 
tian literature  before  them?  Of  course,  we  regret  that  we  cannot  have 
greater  co-operation  in  this  important  matter,  but  the  principles  which 
we  hold  keep  us  at  times  from  entering  into  more  hearty  co-operation. 
In  China  other  denominations  have  insisted  on  translating  Baptism — 
* '  Washing  ceremony. ' '  This  is  given  simply  as  an  example  but  it 
shows  to  our  people  plainly  why  we  cannot  enter  fully  into  co-operation 
in  the  publishing  business,  and  the  necessity  of  our  having  our  own 
plants.  Yet  at  the  same  time  there  are  books  and  other  literature  which 
can  be  used  by  the  different  denominations. 

The  medical  work,  which  is  being  done  by  the  different  denominations, 
is  mutually  helpful.  It  is  generally  understood  among  the  missionaries 
that  where  a  hospital  is  in  one  city,  in  case  another  one  is  to  be  put  up, 
it  will  be  in  some  other  city.  These  hospitals  are  called  in  China — 
"Jesus  Stations."  The  influence  of  one  of  them  reaches  for  miles 
around  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  and  many  denominations  get  the 
benefit  of  the  breaking  down  of  prejudice  and  the  winning  of  the 
hearts  of  the  natives.  Besides  this  the  medical  missionary  ministers  not 
only  to  the  missionaries  of  his  own  denomination,  but  of  others. 

There  are  times  when  several  different  denominations  get  the  benefit  of 
the  schools  which  are  put  up  for  the  training  of  the  natives.  While  these 
schools  are  generally  under  one  denomination,  the  Christian  College  of 
Canton  is  not  under  any  special  denomination,  but  is  conducted  by  fund's 
furnished  by  people  who  while  Christians,  yet  have  not  put  the  school 
under  any  one  body  of  Christians.  Such  schools  exert  a  great  influence 
for  good. 

We  rejoice  that  a  spirit  of  love  exists  among  the  workers  at  the  front. 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  147 

While  men  differ  conscientiously,  thej'  still  love  each  other,  and  so  far 
as  they  can  consistently  do  so,  work  together  for  God's  glory. 

We  regret  that  there  are  divisions  among  God's  people  in  this  great 
work  which  He  has  given  to  us.  We  believe  it  is  hurtful  and  wasteful. 
Wherever  possible  there  should  be  union,  but  there  can  only  be  union 
as  hearts  agree  on  the  truth.  Tlie  standard  for  us  all  is  God's  Holy 
Truth.  We  must  have  hearts  which  love  Him  so  supremely  as  to  obey 
Him  implicitly. 

We  know  that  we  Baptists  have  been  blamed  for  not  yielding  our  prin- 
ciples and  joining  in  with  others,  but  who  is  responsible  for  divisions'? 
Not  those  who  stand  by  God's  Word,  but  those  who  depart  from  it.  We 
do  not  hold  certain  tenets  for  contention  but  for  conscience'  sake.  We 
hold  them  because  we  cannot  do  otherwise.  Ahab  called  Elijah,  The 
One  Who  Troubled  Israel,  but  Elijah's  response  was  verily  true.  The 
King  of  England  has  in  the  last  few  weeks  done  a  noble  deed  when  he 
took  his  position  against  the  awful  evil  of  divorce,  against  those  who 
would  break  down  the  blessed  relationship  which  God  ordained  in  Eden, 
and  which  is  to  be  through  all  time  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  home,  for 
the  protection  of  the  children,  for  the  strengthening  of  the  State  and 
nation.  And  yet  there  are  people  who  will  blame  King  George  for  the 
position  which  he  has  taken.  Who  is  right?  We  cannot  surrender  the 
truths  of  God  for  the  approval  of  men,  but  we  must  maintain  them. 

These  truths  which  we  have  held  have  proved  a  blessing  to  the  world. 
John  Locke  said — "The  Baptists  are  the  first  and  only  propounders  of 
absolute  soul  liberty."  The  position  which  we  have  taken  has  broken 
the  bonds  of  ignorance,  of  priesthood,  of  kings  and  has  let  God's  men 
walk  in  a  free  earth  with  consciences  aroused  and  hearts  ready  to  serve 
and  glorify  Him.  They  have  taught  men  that  they  each  and  all  are 
responsible  to  God  and  to  Him  above  all  others.  Men  have  been  willing 
to  be  imprisoned  and  beaten  and  put  to  death  for  these  principles,  but 
they  are  working  out  glorious  results.  Some  who  formerly  scoffed  at 
those  who  hold  them  have  now  changed  and  are  receiving  them.  The 
Baptist  principles  are  taking  hold  all  around  the  world.  This  is  no  time 
for  us  to  give  them  up.  Compromise  means  weakness;  faithful  adher- 
ence means  strength.  All  other  denominations  will  likely  never  join  the 
Baptists,  but  if  we  can  get  them  to  accept  God's  truth  and  teach  these 
truths  to  others,  we  have  been  faithful  to  God,  and  we  have  been  a  bless- 
ing to  our  fellow-men. 

Someone  may  say  that  it  is  God's  Kingdom,  not  ours.  We  must  not 
make  laws.  That  is  true.  The  work  is  the  Lord's  and  He  alone  has  the 
right  to  make  laws.  He  knows  what  is  best,  and  for  that  very  reason  we 
must  be  faithful.  It  was  God's  work  in  the  past,  and  yet  God  would 
have  Moses  and  Joshua  and  Gideon  and  Paul  and  Luther  stand  faith- 
ful and  firm.  Let  each  Christian  realize  that  he  is  the  son  of  a  King  and 
is  a  priest  before  God.  As  we  go  we  must  cry — ''The  sword  of  the 
Lord  and  of  Gideon. ' '  God 's  power  and  man 's  fidelity  go  hand  in  hand 
to  accomjjlish  great  victory. 

Baptists  have  not  everything.  Having  to  contend  for  the  truth  so 
zealously,  has  at  times  made  them  contentious  and  destroyed  their  Christ- 
likeness.  Let  us  be  faithful  for  the  truth,  but  in  love  let  us  do  God's 
work.  As  we  regard  other  denominations  around  us,  we  would  do  bet- 
ter work  for  God  if  we  had  more  of  the  zeal  of  one  sister  denomination, 
and  more  of  the  reverence  of  another,  and  more  of  the  consecrated  de- 


148  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

votion  in  sending  out  the  gospel  of  salvation  of  another.  Let  us  not 
lose  sight  of  these  things  while  we  are  trying  to  press  forward  in  God's 
work. 

Baptists  are  a  mighty  world  force.  We  must  not  stay  in  a  corner.  We 
have  been  unpopular  as  we  have  taught  implicit  obedience  to  God's 
blessed  word,  and  the  sacredness  of  man,  though  he  be  poor  and  weak. 
We  have  taught  that  the  individual  man  before  God  is  more  than  money 
or  position,  that  the  despised  and  weak  has  a  right  and  duty  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  We  have  taught 
that  each  must  obey  God  for  himself.  We  have  taught  that  Church  and 
State  are  separate  and  distinct,  and  that  God's  law  is  above  man's  law, 
that  each  believer  is  a  king  and  priest  in  Christ  Jesus.  We  have  put  the 
riches  of  this  world  and  the  high  positions  of  this  world  as  secondary,  and 
put  God's  Kingdom  with  God's  children  first.  These  doctrines  are  now 
winning,  and  they  will  win  more  and  more,  but  in  it  all  we  must  love  and 
be  lovely.  To  win  for  Christ  we  must  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  show 
the  love  of  Christ.  This  will  draw  men.  After  all,  union  is  not  in  name 
but  in  heart  and  truth.  Let  us  so  live  as  to  present  Christ  and  make  all 
men  love  and  serve  Him. 

I  heard  a  story: 

A  young  musician  skilfully  handled  his  instrument  before  a  great 
throng.  They  cheered  and  cheered  and  encored.  The  young  musician 
seemed  indifferent  to  the  applause  of  the  great  throng,  but  ever  and 
anon  would  look  up  into  one  corner  of  the  gallery.  Again  he  would 
skilfully  perform  on  his  instrument,  and  again  there  would  be  the  wild 
applause.  The  young  musician  would  quietly  look  into  the  corner  of  the 
gallery.  When  the  performance  was  over,  someone  asked  him  why  he 
seemed  to  be  so  indifferent  to  their  approving  applause.  He  said — "Ah, 
I  cared  little  for  that.  Wbat  I  wanted  was  a  smile  from  my  old  master. 
You  did  not  see  him  up  in  the  gallery.  If  only  I  could  get  his  approving 
smile  that  was  enough  for  me."  We  are  working  under  the  eye  of 
Almighty  God.  Let  us  be  careful  to  produce  that  harmony  in  all  that 
we  do,  which  comes  from  perfect  accord  with  His  Holy  Word  and  su- 
preme love  for  Him  and  our  fellow-men.  This  will  be  best  for  the  lost 
in  all  the  world.     This  will  bring  the  approval  of  the  Master. 

(Applause.) 

President  Clifford  presented  to  the  meeting  the  following  resolutions, 
which  were  enthusiastically  adopted : 

TO   THE    PRESIDENT   OP    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

"The  Baptist  World  Alliance,  in  session  in  Philadelphia,  begs  to  ex- 
press its  respectful  greetings  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  as 
the  Chief  Executive  of  the  great  Republic  within  whose  borders  the  Alli- 
ance meets.  It  assures  him  of  its  grateful  appreciation  of  the  welcome 
which  has  been  accorded  to  its  members  in  America.  It  offers  earnest 
prayer  for  long  and  useful  years  of  increasing  personal  and  public  ser- 
vice on  behalf  of  the  great  cause  of  humanity,  and  gives  thanks  to  God 
for  his  great  contribution  to  the  cause  of  peace." 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  149 

THE  CORONATION  OF  KING  GEORGE  V. 

"That  this  Baptist  World  Alliance,  rein-esenting  eight  millions  (8,000,- 
000)  of  members,  and  now  meeting'  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  hereby 
expresses  its  joy  in  the  accession  of  King  George  V.  and  Queen  Mary  to 
the  throne  of  the  British  Empire,  and  begs  most  respectfully  to  offer  its 
sincere  and  hearty  congratulations  on  their  coronation  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  prays  that  God  will  abundantly  bless  their  reign,  making  it 
to  issue  in  the  increasing  happiness  and  well-being  of  the  people,  in  the 
widest  sway  of  justice  and  purity,  in  the  maintenance  and  extension  of 
peace,  and  the  promotion  of  brotherhood  and  good-will  amongst  all  men. ' ' 

REGARDING  PEACE. 

"That  this  Baptist  World  Alliance,  representing  eight  millions  (8,000,- 
000)  and  more  of  Baptists  all  over  the  earth,  expresses  its  thankfulness 
to  God  for  the  brightening  prospects  of  the  extinction  of  war  and  the 
arrival  of  universal  peace  and  good  will. 


"The  Alliance  places  on  record  its  profound  gratitude  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States  for  the  proposal  of  unlimited  arbitration  in  all  in- 
ternational disputes,  and  for  his  repeated  and  sustained  efforts  to  get 
that  proposal  accepted  not  only  by  England  but  by  other  countries  also. 

II. 

' '  The  Alliance  is  also  grateful  for  the  cordial  and  enthusiastic  welcome 
given  to  that  proposal  by  the  British  Cabinet  and  Parliament  irrespective 
of  party,  and  by  the  representatives  of  Germany  and  France,  and  trusts 
that  nothing  will  be  wanting  to  establish  at  an  early  date  a  permanent 
arbitral  court  for  the  settlement  of  all  questions  amongst  nations  which 
cannot  be  disposed  of  by  the  ordinary  methods  of  diplomacy. 

ni. 

"Further,  the  Alliance,  recognizing  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  subjects 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace  to  lead  in  such  pacific  work,  rejoices  in  the  re- 
sponse made  by  our  churches  all  over  the  world  to  these  endeavors,  and 
urges  them  to  continue  to  pray  for  peace,  to  check  everything  in  the 
press  and  in  national  life  calculated  to  cause  strife  among  the  nations, 
to  protest  against  the  extension  of  the  warfield  into  the  air,  and  to  pro- 
mote in  every  way  possible  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  love." 

Hymn,  "Blest  Be  the  Tie  that  Binds." 

Chairman  :  In  the  city  of  London,  the  city  of  the  world,  there  is  a 


150  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAl^CE. 

great  Institutional  Church  presided  over  by  Rev.  Thomas  Phillips,  whom 
we  are  now  permitted  to  hear  in  the  Alliance  Sermon. 


ALLIANCE  SERMON. 
By  Rev.  THOMAS  PHILLIPS,  London,  England. 

GRACE  AND  GLORY. 

'''The  Lord  will  give  grace  and  glory.'' ^     Psalm  84:  10. 

Grace  is  one  of  the  characteristic  words  of  the  New  Testament  which 
has  strayed  into  the  Old.  It  is  not  seen  in  its  full  beauty  apart  from 
Jesus  Christ,  yet  it  is  not  emptied  of  all  its  significance  when  it  falls 
from  the  lips  of  the  Psalmist.  The  previous  sentence  amply  proves  this. 
''The  Lord  is  a  sun"  and  the  outstanding  feature  of  the  sun  is  its  spon- 
taneous, untrammelled  and  ungrudging  generosity.  It  has  been  pouring 
summertides  of  bounty  on  a  wintry  world  for  countless  centuries.  True 
the  sun  is  only  seen  in  its  meridian  splendor  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  the  same 
the  writer  of  our  text  saw  a  faint  glimmer  of  the  dawn. 

1.  What  strikes  us  most  of  all  is  the  collocation  of  the  two  words 
Grace  and  Glory.  Grace  as  the  sunshine,  and  glory  as  the  rainbow 
which  the  grace  weaves  on  the  clouds  of  life.  And  this  wedlock  is  not 
an  accident.  Like  light  and  heat,  like  root  and  stalk,  like  spring  and 
stream  they  are  joined  together  in  Bible  teaching,  in  church  history  and 
in  Christian  experience.  "The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  amongst 
us  full  of  grace  and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begot- 
ten of  the  Father."  The  visitation  of  grace  results  in  a  vision  of  glory. 
Again  we  read,  ' '  The  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared 
to  all  men  teaching  us  ....  to  look  for  that  blessed  hope  and  the 
appearing  of  the  glory  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 
The  epiphany  of  grace  leads  on  to  the  epiphany  of  glory.  "These  are 
they  who  have  washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white" — there  is  the 
glory,  "In  the  blood  of  the  Lamb" — there  is  the  grace.  And  so  through- 
out the  warp  and  woof  of  Holy  Scripture. 

In  church  history  every  fresh  discovery  of  grace  has  resulted  in  a 
fresh  outburst  of  glory.  The  infant  church  of  the  New  Testament 
marched  forward  with  a  royal  impressiveness  that  was  well-nigh  irre- 
sistible, but  its  glory  was  largely  due  to  the  discovery  of  grace.  It  was 
grace  that  made  Paul,  and  it  was  Paul  that  made  early  Christendom. 
Then  almost  all  that  is  choicest  in  our  modern  life  is  due  to  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation,  and  that  was  due  to  Martin  Luther's  vision  of  free 
and  full  forgiveness.  Again  the  splendor  of  the  evangelical  revival  has 
illumined  two  continents,  but  it  had  its  dawn  in  a  little  room  in  London 
where  John  Wesley  heard  Luther's  exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans being  read.  I  have  singled  out  the  three  great  movements,  but  the 
same  vital  truth  is  behind  almost  all  the  less  important  awakenings. 
Grace  has  always  meant  glory.  The  Cross  has  ever  meant  victory. 
Whenever  this  truth  has  been  seen  with  a  fresh  vividness,  whenever  it 
has  been  proclaimed  with  a  deepening  emphasis,  the  church  has  renewed 
its  youth  like  the  eagle,  and  religion  has  blossomed  as  the  lily,  and 
spread  its  roots  as  Lebanon. 

At   the   present   moment   the   church   is   not   arrayed   in   her   choicest 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  151 

robes.  It  is  everywhere  passing  through  an  eclipse.  It  lacks  the  fresh- 
ness and  the  spring,  the  impressiveness  and  the  authority,  the  abandon- 
ment and  the  dash  of  its  best  days.  It  is  hesitating  in  the  face  of  doubt, 
diffident  in  the  face  of  difficulties,  and  compromising  in  its  attitude 
towards  the  charm  and  challenge  of  the  world.  It  lacks  the  mien  of  a 
conqueror  and  it  is  not  making  the  headway  which  is  its  prerogative  and 
right.  Tliere  is  daylight  but  no  sunshine,  movement  but  no  resiliency, 
influence  but  no  glory. 

But  its  glory  is  dimmed  because  its  vision  is  blurred.  Our  eyes  have 
lost  sight  of  the  everlasting  hills  and  the  altitudes  of  grace  have  been 
wrapped  in  the  mist.  It  was  the  late  Dr.  Dale's  complaint  that  the  word 
grace  was  falling  into  disuse.  You  buy  a  modern  book  on  grace  and  find 
it  deals  with  the  sacraments.  There  is  no  literature  on  the  subject  since 
**The  Reign  of  Grace"  of  Abraham  Booth  and  the  "Grace  Abounding" 
of  John  Bunyan.  True  we  hear  m'uch  about  love,  but  it  is  often  love 
minus  that  something  that  constitutes  it  grace.  True  we  hear  a  great 
deal  about  religion  but  it  is  as  psychology  rather  than  as  revelation.  It 
is  the  approach  of  man  to  God  rather  than  that  of  God  to  man.  There  is 
more  humanitarianism  than  ever  but  with  it  the  tendency  to  limit  re- 
ligion to  a  relationship  between  man  and  man,  and  to  exclude  from  it 
the  greatness  and  the  wonder  that  comes  from  converse  with  the  Infinite 
and  communion  with  the  Divine.  We  can  only  regain  the  glory  as  we 
regain  the  grace. 

No  greater  problem  can  face  any  religious  community  than  the  task 
of  obtaining  a  fresh  vision  of  the  divine  grace.  Some  of  our  best  men 
say  the  word  is  lost.  ''It  is  utterly  meaningless  to  me,"  said  a  medical 
man  to  me  the  other  day.  To  him  it  had  become  out-of-date  rubbish 
in  the  theological  lumber  room.  And  yet  we  know  it  to  be  that  some- 
thing in  God  which  is  at  the  heart  of  all  his  redeeming  activities.  If  we 
understood  grace  better  we  would  understand  God  better.  A  new  vision 
of  grace  would  add  a  fresh  splendor  to  every  conception  we  form  of  His 
character.  Every  picture  the  mind  forms  of  Him  falls  short,  far  short, 
but  every  picture  would  be  worthier  if  we  could  rediscover  the  signifi- 
cance of  grace. 

Now  most  Christian  men  think  of  God  in  a  four-fold  way.  They  think 
of  Him  as  the  indwelling  life  of  the  world,  its  perfect  holiness,  as  the 
God  of  the  incarnation  and  as  the  God  of  Calvary  and  the  Cross.  It  is 
grace  that  gives  significance  and  force  and  wonder  to  each  of  these  con- 
ceptions. Without  grace  immanence  would  mean  fatalism,  holiness 
would  become  overwhelming  in  its  austerity,  the  incarnation  would  lose 
its  dignity  and  the  Cross  would  be  robbed  of  its  triumph  and  joy. 

Grace  saves  immanence  from  producing  fatalism,  it  makes  the  indwell- 
ing God  a  friend  and  a  helper,  and  not  a  gaoler  and  a  despot.  There 
are  some  men  to-da_y  who  say  in  their  creed  that  God  or  Infinite  Force 
is  everj'thing  and  that  man  is  nothing  and  then  they  go  away  and  pi'o- 
claim  by  their  actions  that  man  is  everything  and  God  is  nothing.  This 
is  the  besetting  temptation  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Americans  and 
Englishmen  are  so  energetic  and  enterprising  and  masterful  that  there 
is  little  room  left  for  God.  But  consider  how  utterly  dependent  we  are 
on  His  help  even  in  our  simplest  efforts  and  most  insignificant  acts.  Take 
for  example,  the  pronunciation  of  a  single  word,  the  poorest  interjec- 
tion in  the  English  language.  We  say  a  child  can  accomplish  that  with- 
out the  slightest  assistance.     No,  nor  even  the  ablest  man,  although  he 


152  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

be  the  greatest  genius  on  the  American  continent.  For  first  of  all  he 
must  have  breath,  he  cannot  manufacture  oxygen,  and  air  is  a  direct  gift 
from  the  open  hand  of  God.  Behind  the  breath  there  must  be  vital 
force  for  the  dead  body  of  the  most  brilliant  genius  cannot  whisper 
even  the  ghost  of  an  interjection.  The  utterance  of  the  most  insignifi- 
cant word  is  a  matter  of  grace,  ten  per  cent  may  be  of  man  but  ninety 
per  cent  is  of  God.  We  proudly  speak  of  thought  as  free  and  original 
and  creative  but  we  cannot  create  two  and  two  into  five.  Two  and  two 
were  four  before  we  were  born.  Two  and  two  will  continue  to  be  four 
after  we  are  dead,  and  although  not  flattering  to  our  self-importance, 
two  and  two  would  be  four  even  if  we  had  never  existed.  The  fact  exists 
apart  from  us  and  is  given  not  manufactured.  All  arithmetic  is  of  grace 
when  it  is  correct,  and  so  throughout  the  whole  gamut  of  thought,  and 
experience  and  service.  There  is  something  of  Edison  in  the  gramophone 
but  far  more  of  God.  Edison  only  put  together  a  few  of  God's  materials 
in  accordance  with  God's  laws.  No  true  thought  is  a  home  production. 
Milton  and  Schiller,  Kepler  and  Goethe  have  willingly  acknowledged 
that  all  their  best  thoughts  came  like  white  birds  from  the  open  hands 
of  God. 

It  is  not  I  who  have  written 

It  is  not  I  who  have  sung; 
I'm  the  chord  that  Another  has  smitten 

The  chime  that  Another  has  rung. 
I  give  but  the  things  I  am  given 

I  share  but  the  things  that  I  see, 
I  draw  but  my  pencil  is  driven 

By  a  force  that  is  master  of  me. 

So  the  whole  of  life  is  a  burning  bush,  ablaze  with  the  beneficence  of 
God.  Prayer  is  of  grace,  so  is  breathing,  worship  is  of  grace,  so  is  busi- 
ness. The  strength  to  adore  comes  from  God,  so  does  the  strength  to  sin. 
There  is  no  activity  of  the  human  soul  but  is  charged  with  the  gracious- 
ness  of  the  indwelling  and  the  overhanging  God.  It  is  wonderful  that  He 
is  so  near,  but  more  wonderful  still  that  His  nearness  does  not  crush 
and  overpower  and  imprison  us.  He  helps  but  in  helping  He  is  like 
Himself,  full  of  eonsiderateness  and  grace.     In  the  words  of  the  poet — 

God  whose  pleasure  brought 

Man  into  being,  stands  away. 

As  if  it  were  a  handbreadth  off,  to  give 

Room  for  the  newly  made  to  live 

And  look  at  him  from  a  place  apart 

And  use  his  gifts  of  brain  and  heart. 

He  stands  apart  but  only  the  space  of  a  handbreadth,  far  enough  to  give 
us  an  opportunity  to  grow,  but  near  enough  to  provide  never-failing 
stores  of  helpfulness  and  love.  Near  as  a  mother  is  to  her  toddling 
child,  watching  with  pride  and  solicitude  its  development  and  growth, 
but  ever  ready  at  the  slightest  crj-  to  hasten  to  its  aid.  Men  are  every- 
where seeking  to  understand  life.  Perhaps  its  ultimate  definition  will  be 
the  grace  of  God. 

2.     Grace  saves  the  holiness  of  God  froni  austerity  and  invests  it  with 
healing  and  hope.    It  is  possible  for  the  divine  stainlessness  to  be  so  pre- 


Wednesday,  June  21.  J     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  153 

sented  as  to  produce  paralysis  and  despair.  Moses  preached  holiness 
but  it  was  holiness  that  brought  no  healing.  Carlyle  preached  it  to  the 
last  generation  making  God  an  alien  Power  and  a  holy  Taskmaster  writ- 
ing His  lessons  of  duty  across  the  high  heavens  in  scrolls  of  fire  and 
holding  in  His  hand  the  dread  whip  of  an  inexorable  retribution;  but 
poor  Carlyle,  his  gospel  only  brought  him  dyspepsia  and  despair.  Yet 
Moses  was  only  the  spokesman  of  law,  and  Carlyle  the  faithful  interpre- 
ter of  the  universal  conscience.  It  is  natural  to  think  of  holiness  as 
august  but  austere,  as  wholesome  but  exacting,  as  mighty  but  drab  and 
uninviting.  But  for  sintul  man  such  a  view  means  the  hopelessness  of 
the  outer  darkness.  But  that  is  holiness  minus  grace,  holiness  on  the 
defensive  and  not  on  the  aggressive,  holiness  negative  and  not  positive, 
holiness  restraining  and  punishing  and  not  healing  and  restoring. 

We  would  expect  God  to  visit  the  transgressor  with  retribution  swift 
and  wholesome  and  to  wipe  out  every  smudge  of  unholiness  from  his  fair 
and  holy  world.  But  after  all  that  is  a  poor  achievement  compared  with 
the  enterprise  of  making  the  unholy  holy  and  of  winning  back  His  wan- 
dering child  to  fair  and  glad  obedience.  He  might  defend  himself 
against  sin  but  it  is  greater  to  defend  the  sinner  against  his  doom.  He 
might  protect  the  dignity  of  his  own  character  but  it  is  grander  to  pro- 
tect at  a  great  cost  the  frailty  and  the  weakness  of  man.  This  is  holi- 
ness at  its  noblest  and  best.  God  thinking,  feeling,  willing,  suffering, 
sacrificing,  upsetting  every  calculation,  outleaping  every  exi^eetation, 
surprising  the  guilty  with  forgiveness  and  the  fallen  with  hope.  When 
we  were  lost  and  undone  and  could  glean  no  encouragement  from  con- 
science and  no  assurance  from  merit  then  from  the  splendor  of  the 
divine  nature  there  flashed  upon  us  the  wonder  and  surprise  of  a  full 
and  free  salvation. 

From  our  smitten  heart  with  tears 

Two  wonders  we  confess, 
The  wonder  of  His  glorious  love 

And  our  oAvn  worthlessness. 

That  is  grace,  not  holiness — holding  its  own,  but  holiness  triumphant, 
regnant,  medicative  and  restoring.  Grace  as  the  overplus  and  surprise, 
the  efflorescence  and  the  coronation  of  the  divine  holiness.  Holiness 
gives  conscience  to  the  grace  and  grace  gives  healing  to  the  holiness. 
There  is  no  compromise  with  sin.  It  is  not  a  light  thing  for  God  to  save. 
It  is  God's  greatest  act  and  it  cost  Him  the  sweat  of  Gethsemane  and  the 
blood  of  Calvary.  Grace  is  not  God's  good  nature  weak  and  indulgent, 
it  is  God's  good  character  stainless  and  mighty.  It  does  everything 
holily,  it  holily  forgives,  it  holily  restores,  and  it  is  only  as  we  appre- 
ciate the  splendor  of  the  holiness  that  we  will  appreciate  the  wonder  of 
the  grace.  Grace  is  the  noblest  word  that  can  be  said  about  God  in  terms 
of  character. 

3.  Grace  saves  the  incarnation  from  being  commonplace  and  pre- 
serves its  dignity  and  wonder.  There  is  no  doctrine  more  popular  to-day 
than  the  incarnation  of  Christ  and  the  humanity  of  God.  But  it  has 
been  almost  monopolized  for  the  purpose  of  transfiguring  ordinary  life 
and  inspiring  social  reform.  We  say  and  say  rightly  that  our  Lord  by 
becoming  man  revealed  the  worth  of  life  and  the  sacredness  of  time. 
He  sanctified  the  home  and  the  cradle.  He  dignified  labor  and  the  work- 


154  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

shop,  He  hallowed  friendship,  He  honored  marriage,  He  beautified  the 
grime  and  empearled  the  sweat  of  the  daily  task  and  struggle.  All  this 
is  true  and  it  means  much  for  the  burdens  of  humanity  and  it  has  already 
ushered  in  a  fairer  day.  But  that  is  only  an  aspect  of  the  truth.  That 
is  not  the  whole  of  the  incarnation  as  Paul  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  understood  it.  They  thought  of  it  as  a  stupendous  conde- 
scension on  the  part  of  God.  "Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  that  though  he  was  rich  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor,  that 
through  his  poverty  we  might  become  rich."  There  is  here  something 
more  than  the  enrichment  of  man,  there  is  also  the  impoverishment  of 
God.  Grace  is  then  the  downward  stoop  and  reach  of  God.  It  is  God 
bending  from  the  heights  of  His  majesty  to  touch  and  grasp  our  insigni- 
ficance and  poverty. 

Jesus  was  full  of  grace  and  truth  and  in  Him  we  see  the  grace  of  God 
moving  to  and  fro  in  human  flesh  His  fulness  ever  on  the  lookout  for 
empty  places  and  His  eyes  ever  on  the  ground  looking  for  lost  coins. 
He  did  not  come  first  of  all  to  love  the  righteous  but  to  save  the  lost,  and 
although  love  is  a  ^eat  word  it  is  utterly  inadequate  to  express  the  rich- 
ness of  His  ministry.  The  only  word  that  suffices  is  grace.  Love  turns 
towards  the  lovable,  grace  toward  the  undeserving.  Love  often  looks 
upward,  grace  always  looks  downward.  Love  looks  out  for  excellency, 
grace  looks  out  for  sin.  Love  discovers  merit,  grace  creates  it.  Love 
has  to  be  evoked,  but  grace  acts  of  its  own  accord.  Love  is  often  in- 
voluntary, grace  always  takes  the  initiative.  It  is  love  beyond  the 
bounds  of  love,  love  outloving  love,  love  loving  where  there  is  no  ground 
to  justify  the  loving.  In  the  human  life  of  Jesus  there  was  grace  in  the 
forefront  but  still  a  greater  grace  in  the  background.  The  infinite  com- 
ing into  touch  with  the  finite,  majesty  with  meanness,  and  stainless 
purity  coming  into  contact  with  the  sins  of  men  like  the  snow  of  heaven 
with  the  slush  and  the  mire  of  the  street.  Grace  is  the  Christlikeness  of 
God. 

4.  Grace  relieves  the  gloom  and  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross.  A  Roman 
gibbet  is  in  itself  ghastly  and  sordid  and  by  no  means  an  object  to  east 
a  spell  over  the  love  and  the  devotion  of  mfen  but  it  is  not  the  wood  and 
the  nails,  it  is  the  love  and  the  purpose.  It  is  not  the  agony  but  it  is 
the  willingness  and  the  joy  of  the  sacrifice.  The  New  Testament  word 
for  grace  literally  means  gladness,  and  the  bells  of  joy  always  pealing 
the  movements  of  grace.  In  three  matchless  parables  our  Lord  has  made 
this  abundantly  clear.  He  has  shown  us  grace  reclaiming  the  lost  sheep, 
recovering  the  lost  coin,  and  restoring  the  lost  son.  There  is  patience 
implied,  it  is,  true,  and  sacrifice,  but  our  Lord  pays  little  heed  to  that,  it  is 
the  joy  of  the  enterprise  that  engrosses  His  attention.  "Rejoice  for  I 
have  found  the  sheep  that  was  lost."  "There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of 
the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth."  These  parables  are 
utterly  meaningless  unless  they  teach  that  the  ventures  of  grace  are  ac- 
companied by  the  music  of  joy.  Whether  we  think  of  God  as  a  shep- 
herd or  a  Father  there  is  melody  in  His  might,  there  is  blessedness  in 
His  redemption,  there  is  joy  in  His  sacrifice.  But  athwart  all  this  falls 
the  dark  tragedy  of  Calvary  and  the  Cross.  Yes,  there  was  agony,  agony 
unspeakable,  there  was  sacrifice,  sacrifice  unfathomable  and  divine.  But 
our  Lord's  own  word  for  it  was  glorification.  It  is  Paul  who  calls  it 
humiliation.  Jesus  has  not  much  to  say  about  His  agony.  Because  of 
the  joy  set  before  Him  He  endured  the  Cross  despising  the  shame.     The 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  155 

Croi 

joy. 


Cross  is  at  one  and  the  same  time  God's  deepest  agony  and  supremest 
joy. 


Gladness  be  with  thee  helper  of  the  world, 

For  this  is  the  authentic  sign  and  seal 

Of  Godship,  that  it  ever  waxes  glad 

And  more  glad,  until  gladness  blossoms,  bursts 

Into  a  rage  to  suffer  for  mankind 

And  recommence  at  sorrow. 

The  ever  blessed  God  so  abundantly  rich  with  a  glad  and  holy  life  so 
overbrimming  with  joy  that  it  must  needs  overflow  into  the  poverty- 
stricken  emptiness  of  sinful  men,  even  if  the  means  of  communication 
be  the  Cross  of  agony  and  shame.  That  is  grace  in  the  original  signifi- 
cance of  the  word  and  that  is  grace  too  in  the  grandest  manifestation  of 
its  glory.  The  joy  of  God  enriching  the  misery  of  man  at  the  cost  of 
suffering  and  death. 

So  then  whether  we  think  of  God  as  the  omnipresent  power  in  whom 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  or  whether  we  see  Him'  in  the  act 
of  unbosoming  His  wounded  heart  on  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  whether  we 
hear  His  majestic  voice  in  the  imperial  tones  of  conscience  or  see  His 
glory  in  the  face  of  our  incarnate  Lord,  the  arresting  vision  is  always 
grace.  Without  grace  immanence  Avould  bring  fatalism  and  holiness 
would  bring  despair.  It  is  grace  that  measures  the  stoop  of  the  incarna- 
tion and  saves  the  Cross  from  depressing  gloom  and  makes  it  resplen- 
dent with  the  joj^  of  a  quenchless  blessedness.  It  is  the  glory  of  every 
divine  attribute,  the  mainspring  of  every  divine  activity,  and  the  burden 
of  every  divine  revelation.  It  is  the  hidden  strength  of  every  evangelical 
Christian  and  the  undertone  of  every  New  Testament  writer.  It  unites 
the  Epistles  and  the  Gospels,  and  joins  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Green- 
leaf  W'hittier.  The  geography  is  different  but  the  geology  is  the  same, 
the  landscapes  vary  but  the  underlying  strata  are  always  grace.  In  the 
gospel  we  have  grace  embodied  in  a  stainless  life,  in  the  Epistles  we  have 
grace  crystalized  into  an  articulated  doctrine.  In  Jonathan  Edwards 
we  have  a  narrow  horizon  but  it  is  full  from  centre  to  circumference 
with  grace.  In  Whittier  Ave  have  the  horizon  extended  to  the  point  of 
breaking  but  it  is  because  the  grace  is  so  ample  that  he  cannot  find  an 
horizon  big  enough  to  enclose  it.  It  is  the  one  truth  that  is  behind  every 
truth,  the  one  energy  at  the  heart  of  all  redeeming  activities,  the  one 
force  that  expresses  the  character  of  God  and  unifies  the  noblest  thoughts 
of  man.  Grace  with  a  conscience,  grace  with  a  character,  grace  with  a 
cross,  grace  that  without  ignoring  sin  conquers  it,  grace  that  without 
postulating  merit  produces  it,  grace  inexhaustible  as  the  sea,  all-enfold- 
ing as  the  sky,  undeterred  by  man's  miserj^  and  undaunted  by  man's  sin. 
The  grace  of  God  stainless  and  infinite,  persistent  and  invincible,  rich 
enough  to  wrap  itself  around  the  world  a  million  fold  and  around  a  mil- 
lion, million  worlds  in  addition.  The  expression  of  all  that  is  best  in 
God  and  the  dynamic  of  all  that  is  best  in  man. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  glory  that  follows  the  grace. 

1.  Grace  adds  a  fresh  impressiveness  to  the  pulpit.  The  preacher  in 
our  modern  days  is  called  to  play  many  parts,  he  is  teacher  and  orator, 
ethical  lecturer  and  social  reformer.  But  first  of  all  and  above  all  he  is 
the  evangelist  of  the  grace  of  God.     Every  other  position  he  aecepi  ^  he 


156  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

fills  in  virtue  of  this,  and  to  every  other  task  that  awaits  him  he  comes 
down  from  the  level  of  this.  He  commands  the  whole  landscapf  ol.'  life 
because  he;  lives  amongst  the  hills.  His  distinctive  mission  tncrefore  is 
not  to  summon  men  to  reform  or  to  achieve,  to  strive  or  to  attain,  but 
to  appropriate  and  to  receive.  Man  is  an  emptiness  for  God's  fulness 
and  a  cavern  for  God's  sea,  and  his  first  task  and  privilege  is  to  welcome 
in  the  rush  of  the  incoming  tide.  Hospitality  to  grace,  willingness  to  be 
helped  is  the  first  step  in  salvation.  All  the  great  soul  winners  and  men 
builders  have  recognized  "this.  I  have  turned  the  pages  of  Charles  Had- 
don  Spurgeon  to  discover  the  secret  of  his  mighty  power.  I  am  per- 
suaded it  was  this,  here  is  a  man  who  had  with  all  the  fibres  of  a  great 
soul  grasped  the  reality  of  grace  and  in  the  gladness  of  his  priceless  dis- 
covery invited  his  people  to  share  the  richness  of  his  spoil.  He  was  the 
generous  almoner  of  the  divine  bounty  always  thronged  with  listeners  be- 
cause of  the  exhaustless  wealth  he  had  to  distribute.  The  tendency  of 
the  modern  pulpit  is  to  water  down  the  gospel.  We  talk  of  Christ  the 
faultless  man  and  urge  our  people  to  imitate  Him.  We  preach  Him  as 
a  winsome  influence  and  not  as  a  mighty  Saviour.  We  proclaim  His 
unique  kingliness  and  call  on  men  to  surrender  to  His  will  and  to  submit 
to  His  authority.  These  are  aspects  not  to  be  ignored  or  neglected,  but 
if  we  have  no  more  than  a  stainless  model  remote  and  unapproachable, 
there  is  nothing  for  our  people  but  crippling  despair,  and  if  we  have  no 
other  gospel  to  preach  than  submission  to  the  divine  will,  we  are  no  bet- 
ter off  than  Marcus  Aurelius  and  the  old  Roman  stoics.  But  the  gospel 
is  more  than  imitation,  it  is  inspiration,  it  is  more  than  submission,  it  is 
reinforcement.  It  is  not  the  puny  struggle  of  a  man,  it  is  the  love  and 
sacrifice  of  God.  It  is  difficult  to  abide  in  the  inner  sanctuary,  it  is 
hard  to  keep  one's  eyes  unfalteringly  fixed  on  this  central  splendor.  But 
we  all  know  that  it  is  only  when  the  gospel  is  preached  at  its  best  that 
the  best  results  ensue,  that  only  when  it  is  preached  in  its  distinctive 
grandeur  that  its  distinctive  miracles  are  reproduced.  It  is  only  when 
its  heart  of  pity  and  helpfulness  is  laid  bare  that  the  apostolic  results 
follow  and  the  apostolic  glory  flashes  and  gleams.  Grace  is  the  only 
power  that  can  reclothe  the  pulpit  with  glory. 

2.     Grace  will  clothe  the  church  with  distinction. 

It  is  easy  for  the  minister  to  become  a  hewer  of  wood  and  a  drawer 
of  water,  it  is  equally  easy  for  the  church  to  degenerate  to  be  a  merely 
secular  society,  a  club,  an  institute,  or  an  academy.  While  it  has  a  sa- 
cred right  to  guide  and  transfigure  all  the  manifold  activities  of  human 
life,  first  of  all  it  is  the  banqueting  house  of  divine  grace.  It  is  the 
Father's  house  where  He  gathers  all  His  family  around  His  bountiful 
board  to  feed  on  the  bread  of  life  and  feast  on  the  royal  Avine  of  heaven. 
Our  Puritan  fathers  had  a  beautiful  name  for  the  services  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. They  aptly  called  them  the  means  of  grace.  Not  means  of  in- 
struction although  they  are  that.  Not  means  of  delectation  although  in 
His  presence  there  is  fulness  of  joy  and  at  His  right  hand  there  are 
pleasures  for  evermore.  But  means  of  grace.  As  the  April  clouds  bring 
rain,  as  the  summer  sun  brings  mellowing  heat,  so  the  church  brings 
grace.  We  have  something  to  learn  in  this  respect  from  the  Roman 
Catholic.  To  him  the  sacraments  are  the  exclusive  channels  of  grace. 
But  if  he  is  crude  he  is  logical,  if  he  is  material  he  is  consistent.  No 
service  without  a  sacrament,  because  without  a  sacrament  no  grace.  The 
vital  factor  is  the  grace  of  God.     For  the  verv  reason  that  we  attach 


Wednesday,  June  21. J     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  157 

much  less  importance  to  the  sacraments,  we  ought  to  attach  more  value 
to  the  indwelling  communicating  presence  of  God,  and  make  every  part 
of  every  service  the  visible  sign  of  an  invisible  grace. 

The  Apostle  Paul's  definition  of  a  church  assembly  is  a  chal- 
lenge and  a  rebuke.  It  is  a  place  where  the  secrets  of  a 
stray  visitor  are  made  manifest,  and  where  he  is  constrained  to 
fall  down  on  his  face  and  worship  God,  declaring  that  God 
is  among  the  saints  indeed.  That  is  Avhat  sorely  needs  to  be 
done  to-day  and  the  only  power  that  will  do  it  is  the  real  presence  and 
the  actual  grace*.  During  the  Welsh  revival  I  have  seen  godless  districts 
an-ested  as  Avith  an  unseen  luind,  the  public  houses  emptied,  the  sanctu- 
aries thronged  and  the  democracy  almost  breathless  with  awe  because 
for  one  brief  space  it  was  convinced  that  the  church  meant  business  and 
that  God  was  actually  at  work  amongst  His  saints.  Tliis  is  the  only  thing 
that  tells.  I  have  attended  Free  Church  services.  The  preaching  was 
cultured  and  the  style  immaculate,  the  music  was  superb  and  the  congre- 
gation elect,  but  tlien  there  was  no  sound  of  a  going  amongst  the  mul- 
berry' trees,  not  the  faintest  flutter,  not  the  softest  whisper.  On  the  other 
hand  I  have  attended  a  Roman  Catholic  service  when  at  the  tinkling  of 
the  bell  and  the  elevation  of  the  host,  Swiss  peasants  have  prostrated 
themselves  in  holy  awe.  It  was  superstitious  and  even  pitiable,  but  in 
the  midst  of  it  all  there  was  the  sense  of  something  more  than  human. 
I  am  a  Protestant  in  every  fibre  of  my  being,  but  if  it  came  to  an  im- 
perative choice,  I  would  infinitely  prefer  to  worship  in  a  Roman  Catholic 
cathedral  where  I  was  reminded  of  the  Unseen,  than  in  a  Protestant 
sanctuary  where  there  is  no  breeze  from  the  uplands.  This  is  what  hu- 
manity everywhere  wants.  It  is  God  and  His  grace  that  can  ease  its  rest- 
lessness and  satisfy  its  cry.  Eloquence  and  culture,  music  and  oratory  it 
can  obtain  in  other  quarters,  but  the  grace  of  Christ  it  can  only  obtain 
where  believers  are  gathered  together  in  His  name.  The  church  has  other 
functions  I  freely  admit  but  it  is  a  specialist  here.  Its  supreme  mission 
is  to  dispense  the  grace  of  God  to  a  needy  world  and  when  it  does  this 
nobly  and  worthily  the  people  will  come  as  doves  to  its  windows.  ''Arise, 
shine  for  thy  light  is  come  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee 
and  the  people  shall  come  to  thy  light  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy 
rising. ' ' 

3.  Grace  will  add  dignity  and  charm  to  the  life  of  the  individual 
Christian.  To  the  Apostle  Paul  the  Christian  was  a  new  creature,  an 
original  type,  a  distinct  species,  a  fresh  kind  of  man,  as  different  from 
the  man  of  the  world  as  the  lily  is  from  the  nettle,  as  the  palm  is  from 
the  thorn.  Further,  this  type  has  persisted  in  every  age,  in  every  land, 
in  every  church.  We  see  it  in  Paul  and  John,  in  Francis  of  Assisi  and 
Madame  Guyon,  in  Spurgeon  and  Keble,  in  John  Woolman  and  Greenleaf 
"^^littier,  and  in  Ann  Haseltine  Judson  and  Sarah  Pierrepont  Fidwards. 
The  children  of  grace  are  known  everyAvhere.  There  can  be  no  roses 
without  fragrance,  no  woodlands  without  singing  birds,  and  no  divine 
grace  without  gracious  saints.  Theirs  is  the  poetry  of  character.  The 
Apostle  Paul  after  liaving  expounded  the  doctrines  of  grace  in  the  second 
chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  goes  on  to  say:  We  are  His  work- 
manship— His  poem,  His  poetry.  Man  at  his  best  writes  poetry;  God  at 
His  best  Avorks  poetry  and  His  poetry  is  the  poetry  of  lioliness.  Humility 
for  example.    The  man  who  has  been  snatched  from  helplessness  and  de- 


158  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

spair  by  unmerited  grace  will  never  forget  to  carry  himself  as  a  forgiven 
man. 

0,  Saviour  I  have  nought  to  plead 

In  earth  beneath  or  heaven  above 
But  my  own  exceeding  need 

And  thine  exceeding  love. 

When  a  man  comes  there  he  wears  humility  as  a  badge  and  meekness  as 
a  robe.  In  choicest  chime  with  humility  comes  generoug  forgivingness. 
It  is  hard  to  forgive,  impossible,  says  Robert  Louis  Stevenson.  Impos- 
sible away  from'  the  slopes  of  Calvary  but  easy  to  the  man  who  when 
doomed  to  die  is  freely  forgiven  by  a  great  and  unexpected  grace.  It  is 
difiScult  to  harbor  resentment  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross.  Another  line  in 
this  divine  poem  is  graciousness,  the  holy  art  of  passing  on  the  grace  to 
others.  He  pitied  us  when  nobody  cared  for  us,  therefore  we  must  needs 
be  gentle  towards  wasted  lives.  He  helped  us  when  we  had  forfeited 
every  claim,  therefore  we  cannot  be  hard  on  undeserving  souls.  He  loved 
us  when  we  were  undone,  therefore  there  must  be  in  all  our  hearts  a 
soft  place  for  unlovely  men  and  women.  The  instincts  of  self-preserva- 
tion may  rebel,  even  our  sense  of  justice  may  decree  otherwise,  but  we 
are  the  pensioners  of  grace  and  it  ill  befits  us  to  be  anything  but  gracious. 
It  is  impossible  to  describe  a  poem,  but  I  must  mention  one  other  note  of 
choicest  melody,  blithesomeness  in  the  mirk  and  gloom,  the  faculty  of 
song  behind  prison  bars.  One  writer  has  said  that  the  good  old  Roman 
stoics  with  all  their  virtues  could  not  sing.  Their  greatest  saint  once 
gave  out  a  hymn  but  he  could  never  start  the  tune.  But  the  Christians  al- 
ways sang,  sang  their  sweetest  songs  in  the  darkest  night.  Even  Paul 
sang,  the  doughty  controversialist,  the  logical  divine,  the  last  man  in  the 
world  one  would  expect  to  do  so.  So  humility  and  melody,  forgivingness 
and  graciousness  form  the  chief  stanzas  in  the  poetry  of  grave,  choice 
flowers  choicely  arranged  in  the  garden  of  God. 

Grace  will  add  elevation  and  effectiveness  to  social  reform.  Never  were 
nobler  attempts  made  to  improve  the  conditions  of  life  than  are  made 
to-day,  and  never  was  there  more  keenly  felt  the  need  for  some  mighty 
leverage  to  lift  the  whole  of  our  social  organization  into  a  higher  level. 
It  is  easy  to  legislate  for  the  strong  but  the  crux  of  the  problem  is  the 
weak.  The  illhoused  are  often  illmannered.  The  downtrodden  are  fre- 
quently degraded  and  the  unemployed  are  not  seldom  unemployable. 
Every  daj'  of  my  life  I  come  into  touch  with  the  submerged  men  and  wo- 
men of  London.  If  the  whole  crowd  were  sunk  into  the  depths  of  the  sea 
no  art  nor  science,  no  industry  nor  form  of  service  would  suffer  one  whit. 
The  State  would  not  miss  them,  but  God  would.  There  is  no  niche  for 
them  in  our  industrial  life,  but  there  is  ample  room  for  them  in  the  heart 
of  God.  As  the  sun  feels  the  tug  of  every  star,  that  swings  around  its 
centre,  so  God  feels  the  tug  of  every  soul  that  He  has  ever  made,  and 
speaking  frankly  as  one  who  has  looked  repeatedly  into  the  depths  of  the 
social  abyss,  and  as  one  who  gladly  hails  every  legislation  and  reform.  I 
can  think  of  no  power  that  can  recreate  society  from  the  bottom  upwards, 
except  the  grace  of  God.  If  the  Saviour  died  for  all  men  then  manhood  is 
sacred  and  democracy  is  guaranteed.  If  to-day  you  cling  to  the  grand 
democratic  creed  that  it  is  possible  for  every  boy  born  on  American  soil 
to  become  the  President  of  the  Republic,  it  is  largely  because  of  the  doc- 


Wednesday,  June  21. J      ItKL'ORD  OF  I'hUjVt'JJDIXGS.  15!) 

trine  of  grace  held  by  llie  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  preached  and  practised 
at  a  great  cost  by  Koger  Williams.  If  the  grace  of  God  is  the  greatest 
force  in  the  world  to-day,  then  as  sure  as  daylight  follows  the  sun  there 
will  one  day  emerge  a  social  system  that  will  outleap  the  reformer's  fond- 
est dream,  and  the  legislator's  bravest  plan.  Not  based  on  selfishness 
and  dominated  by  gold,  not  regulated  b}'  justice  bare  and  cold  and  grudg- 
ing, but  instinct  from  inner  centre  to  outer  rim  with  goodwill  and  help- 
fulness, its  nexus  grace  and  not  money,  its  relationship  brotherliood  and 
not  force.  The  New  Jerusalem  must  come,  and  the  Lamb  with  the  gentle- 
ness of  His  Cross  will  be  the  light  thereof.  Its  walls  shall  be  called  Sal- 
vation and  its  gates  Praise. 

Grace  gives  to  foreign  missions  significance  and  splendor. 

The  missionary  cause  has  lost  some  of  its  urgency  and  imperativeness. 
The  science  of  comparative  religion  has  sprung  into  existence  and  re- 
vealed much  that  is  beautiful  and  helj^ful  in  Buddhism,  Confucianism 
and  the  other  ethnic  faiths.  This  need  not  disturb  us  for  the  discover}' 
of  what  is  fair  and  lovely  is  the  last  thing  to  hurt  Christianity,  all  the 
same  one  of  the  greatest  needs  of  the  day  is  the  reinforcement  of  the 
missionar}'  motive  and  the  rekindling  of  the  missionary  flame.  The  re- 
discovery of  grace  is  the  only  power  that  can  effect  this  much  needed  min- 
istry. The  grandest  missionary  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  was  the 
Apostle  Paul,  and  his  position  is  almiost  identically  ours  to-day.  The 
Jews,  like  the  Hindoos,  had  a  grand  and  venerable  religion  of  their  own. 
For  when  we  have  said  the  best  about  Buddhism  it  is  not  nobler  than 
Judaism  and  yet  it  is  when  the  Apostle  Paul  thought  of  the  state  of  his 
brother  Jews  that  he  broke  forth  into  the  noblest  missionary  prayer  that 
the  church  has  ever  known:  "I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed 
from  Christ  for  my  brethren  according  to  the  flesh."  No  man  can  out- 
match that  and  yet  Judaism  had  far  reaching  glimpses  of  the  unseen  and 
a  matchless  code  of  morality,  in  short  Judaism  had  everything  but  grace. 
That  is  precisely  the  condition  of  the  great  non-Christian  religions.  As 
John  Ruskin  has  put  it,  in  Christianity  God  seeks  man  whereas  in  everj' 
other  religion  man  seeks  God.  Thej'  preach  penance  and  character,  they 
impose  rites  and  ceremonies;  what  they  lack  is  divine  grace,  tlie  distinc- 
tive grandeur  of  Christianity'.  What  we  have  to  give  is  not  another 
leader  like  Confucius  and  Buddha,  what  we  have  to  preach  is  not  ethical 
rules  and  solemn  rites,  but  the  all-conquering  grace  of  a  condescending 
and  sacrificing  God,  the  one  feature  which  makes  Christianity  unique 
and  the  one  power  which  every  other  religion  conspicuously  lacks. 

So  to  regain  the  glory  we  must  reseek  the  grace.  Sooner  or  later  all 
of  us  must  come  to  see  that  if  anything  strong  and  virile  is  to  come  out 
of  our  poor  broken  blundering  lives  it  must  be  by  the  grace  of  God  and 
not  by  any  endeavor  of  our  own.  It  is  a  relief  to  arrive  here,  the  crisis 
of  the  soul's  joyous  rebirth,  but  we  are  not  allowed  to  stop  at  this  point. 
It  would  be  mutilation  and  disaster  to  stay.  We  must  hasten  on  to  co- 
operate with  others  and  do  work  for  God.  Here  again  we  come  short. 
We  soon  discover  that  our  self-inspired,  self-directed  enterprises  often 
end  in  futility  and  failure.  Grace  must  save  our  work  as  it  has  saved  our 
souls,  when  we  cry  with  the  prophet:  "Not  by  jiower  and  not  by  might 
but  my  spirit,"  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  we  welcome  the  glad  rebirth  of 
a  new  church.  But  even  there  we  are  not  permitted  to  stay.  The  sor- 
rows of  the  great  world  call  us  forth  and  we  strive  and  battle,  agitate 
and  legislate  more  or  less  in  the  spirit  of  cold  Judaism  until  we  realize 


160  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

that  the  task  is  too  mighty  for  our  puny  hands.  Then  we  learn  that  the 
evils  of  society  like  the  evils  of  the  heart  must  be  conquered  by  grace 
and  we  pray  for  social  regeneration  as  we  pray  for  personal  conversion, 
and  that  is  the  glorious  rebirth  of  national  and  international  reform. 
But  even  then  we  are  hurried  onwards  to  face  death  and  the  dim  un- 
known. Even  at  the  last  nothing  but  grace  will  suffice.  Grace  at  the 
end  as  grace  at  the  beginning.  Grace  at  the  close  and  grace  every  step  of 
the  way. 

Grace  all  the  work  shall  crown 
Through  everlasting  days 

It  lays  in  heaven  the  topmost  stone 
And  well  deserves  the  praise. 

Hymn,  ''Amazing  Grace  How  Sweet  the  Sound." 

Session  adjourned  after  benediction  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Shakespeare. 

WOMEN'S  SESSION. 

Wednesday  Afternoon,  June  21,  1911. 

The  session  opened  at  3  P.  M.,  with  Mrs.  A.  G.  Lester,  of  Chicago,  in 
the  chair. 

Hymn,  ''Come  Thou  Almighty  King." 

Mrs.  Andrew  MacLeish,  Chicago :  In  the  addresses  we  have  heard, 
our  thoughts  have  been  turned  to  the  trials  and  tribulations  of  those 
who  have  accepted  Christ  in  other  lands.  As  we  have  listened,  my 
thought  went  to  the  final  outcome  of  it  all  and  I  want  to  read  a  few 
passages  from  those  wonderful  visions  which  the  beloved  St.  John  had 
in  the  maturity  of  his  years  and  of  his  spiritual  experience  on  the  island 
of  Patmos. 

Reads  passages  from  the  Book  of  Revelation. 

Prayer  by  Mrs.  Carrie  Robinson,  of  Boston. 

Presiding  Officer:  In  addition  to  the  many  welcomes  which  have 
already  been  given  to  our  friends  from  over  the  sea  I  want  to  bring 
one  more,  and  that  is  the  greeting  from  the  sisterhood  of  our  land  to 
those  who  have  come  to  us  from  so  far  away.  I  know  that  every  wo- 
man in  our  land  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  the  Lakes  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  would  be  only  too  glad  to  give  this  personal  wel- 
come, but  that,  of  course,  cannot  be,  and  so  I  bring  it  to  you  this  af- 
ternoon. We  welcome  you  all,  especially  those  who  through  hopes  and 
fears  are  laboring  as  we  labor  to  bring  in  the  kingdom.  We  are  learn- 
ing, here  in  our  own  land,  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  order  that 
the  work  of  the  Master  may  be  carried  on  with  greater  force;  but  now 
from  this  time  on  we  shall  feel  more  and  more  that  we  shall  not  only 
stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  here,  but  we  want  to  clasp  hands  with  our 
sisters  across  the  sea  and  on  the  islands  far  away  and  feel  that  they, 
too,  are  standing  with  us  in  this  great  work  for  the  homes  of  our  lands, 
for  womanhood  and  all  that  that  means.  For,  if  womanhood  can  be 
lifted  to  know  the  Master,  the  children  will  also  come  to  know  him  and 


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Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  161 

bless  the  world  as  they  come  to  take  their  places  here.  The  women 
of  our  own  land  have  had  a  wonderful  opjiortunity  for  service,  such,  per- 
haps, as  no  women  ever  had  before,  because  we  have  had  less  difficulty 
in  carrying  on  our  work.  We  have  been  able  not  only  to  carry  the 
message  to  millions  in  the  lands  far  away,  but  God  is  sending  to  us,  to 
our  own  land,  thousands  upon  thousands  who  know  him  not  that  we 
may  give  him  the  message  also. 

We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling 

In   a  grand   and   awful   time, 
In  an  age  on  ages  telling; 

To  be  living  is   sublime. 

Your  coming  to  us  at  this  time  is  and  will  be  a  great  inspiration.  Your 
coming  fills  us  with  a  great  hope  for  the  future  of  our  work,  and  may 
this  meeting  together  of  the  women  of  our  land  and  many  lands  make 
us  feel  more  and  more  that  the  work  which  we  are  doing  will  be  carried 
on  with  greater  facilities  than  ever  before,  and  with  this  great  hoj)e 
may  our  hearts  be  filled  with  a  great  consecration.  For  that  is  what  we 
must  have  if  we  are  going  to  bring  this  work  to  the  place  that  it 
should  be  in  this  generation.  I  Avish  this  afternoon  that  we  might  give 
more  time  than  we  are  able  to  those  who  shall  bring  us  the  messages 
from  the  other  lands,  but  we  have  so  many  from  whom  we  want  to  hear 
that  we  shall  be  obliged  to  put  a  limit  upon  the  time  during  which  they 
can  speak  to  us.  The  first  one  who  will  bring  us  a  message  will  bring 
it  from  a  land  which  perhaps  many  of  us  claim  as  our  fatherland,  too, 
from  England.  The  message  will  be  given  us  by  Mrs.  Marie  C.  Kerry, 
of  London,  England,  Home  Secretary  of  the  Baptist  Zenana  Mission. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  EAST  TO  THE  WOMEN  OF  THE  WEST. 
By  Mrs.  M.  C.  KERRY. 

To  those  of  us  who  are  set  on  i  the  watch-tower  to  observe  great  world 
movements,  that  call  to-day  is  louder,  more  insistent,  and  more  articulate 
than  ever  before.  The  call  of  to-day  is  very  much  more  urgent  than 
that  of  fifty  years  ago. 

You,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  have  just  been  celebrating  the  jubilee 
of  organized  women's  work — we  British  Baptist  women  can  only  look 
back  on  forty-four  years  of  organized  effort. 

"We  must  not  forget  l#-day  in  this  great  gathering  the  pioneer  work 
done  by  the  brave  women  who  prepared  the  way  for  us — the  wives  of  our 
first  missionaries.  We  honor  the  names  of  the  Judson  trio,  of  Mrs. 
Newell,  Mrs.  Marshman,  and  many  others  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
present  women 's  work. 

We  may  well  ask  ourselves  to-day  two  questions : 

1.  What  has  been  accomplished^ 

2.  What  still  remains  to  be  donel 


162  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

BEGINNING  OP  WOMEN'S   WORK  IN  BRITAIN. 

The  Baptist  Zenana  Mission  of  Great  Britain  was  commenced  by  a  few 
women  in  London,  England,  Avhose  hearts  were  stirred  by  the  story  of  the 
sad  condition  of  women  in  India.  It  was  through  the  addresses  given  by 
missionaries'  wives,  especially  by  Mrs.  Sale  and  Mrs.  Lewis,  that  the 
movement  began. 

The  first  year's  income  was  only  £300 — $1,500,  and  with  this  sum  two 
or  three  workers  were  engaged  in  India,  who  started  little  day-schools 
for  girls,  and  began  to  teach  older  women  in  the  few  zenanas  then  open 
to  them.  The  work  began  almost  simultaneously  at  the  two  extremes  of 
our  field  in  North  India,  in  the  tAvo  great  cities  of  Delhi  and  Calcutta.  It 
soon  extended  to  other  stations  where  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
was  at  work. 

MEDICAL  WORK. 

To-day  we  number  seventy-two  workers  in  India.  Of  these  six  are 
doctors  and  five  nurses,  with  four  hospitals  and  seven  dispensaries. 

PHILANTHROPIC  WORK. 

Much  philanthropic  work  is  done  by  our  women  missionaries  in  times 
of  plague  and  famine,  when  hundreds  of  women  and  girls  are  succored  by 
them.  Two  of  our  missionaries  hold  the  Kaiser-i-Hind  medal  bestowed 
by  the  Indian  Government  in  recognition  of  their  devoted  service  in  these 
respects. 

INDUSTRIAL   WORK. 

Industrial  work  is  carried  on  at  two  centi-es.  At  Salamatpur  in  the 
Punjab,  one  hundred  and  twenty  women  and  girls  are  entirely  supported 
from  the  proceeds  of  their  own  work  (chiefly  needlework).  At  the  other 
centre  (which  is  also  a  Converts'  Home)  the  women  contribute  part  of 
their  support. 

DAY  AND   SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 

In  the  absence  of  any  definite  scheme  of  government  education  for 
girls  in  India,  our  missionaries  (as  well  as  your  own)  have  had  "a  great 
and  effectual  door"  opened  to  them  for  work  among  children.  The  day 
school  and  the  Sunday-school  are  the  greatest  missionary  agencies  at 
work  in  India  to-day,  and,  all  unconsciously  to  the  people  themselves,  are 
doing  much  to  undermine  the  ancient  faiths.  While  government  does  not 
itself  undertake  the  work,  it  provides  a  code  £or  female  education,  in- 
spects the  schools,  and  gives  the  welcome  help  of  liberal  grants  in  aid, 
without  in  any  way  interfering  with  the  Christian  teaching  given;  in 
fact,  we  may  say  that  the  British  government  values  very  highly  the 
educational  and  philanthropic  work  of  women  missionaries. 

TRAINING  OF   CHRISTIAN   GIRLS. 

Side  by  side  with  this  work  has  gone  on  the  training  of  Christian  girls 


Wednesday,  Juno  21. J      liECUUU  OF  I'ROCEEDIS U^.  163 

in  what  are  known  all  over  the  mission  field  as  "Boarding  Schools." 
Girls  Irom  Christian  homes  are  gathered  to  suitable  centres  whei'e  they 
ai*e  educated,  trained  in  domestic  woi-k,  and  receive  careful  teaching  in 
the  truths  of  Christianity.  Most  of  the  girls  marn',  but  it  is  from  these 
schools  that  Ave  get  our  best  Christian  workers  in  the  shape  of  school 
teachers,  matrons,  Bible  women,  nurses,  compounders,  and  qualified 
doctors. 

Seven  such  schools  for  girls  are  carried  on  in  India  (two  of  which  be- 
long to  the  Baptist  IMissionary  Society  with  about  eight  hundred  pupils. 
The  Church  of  Ciirist  is  recruited  year  by  year  by  additions  fi'om  the 
schools,  and  an  increasing  army  of  trained  workers  aBly  second  the  work 
of  the  European  missionaries. 

TRAINING  COLLEGE  FOR  TEACHERS, 

Lately  our  first  effort  at  union  for  educational  Avork  has  been  made  by 
the  establishment  of  a  United  Training  College  for  women  teachers  in 
Calcutta  for  Bengal.  Baptist  money  provided  the  building,  and  Baptists 
also  supplied  the  first  principal;  but  four  British  societies  unite  in  the 
manag'ement,  and  all  societies  are  invited  to  send  students.  In  this  its 
second  year  of  work  the  college  has  thirty-three  students. 

EVANGELISTIC    WORK. 

Great  attention  has  always  been  given  to  evangelistic  work,  and  this  is 
largely  done  by  the  help  of  trained  Bible  women.  In  towns  and  cities 
there  is  a  regularly  organized  system  of  visitation,  and  there  are  unlim- 
ited opportunities  for  the  simple  proclamation  of  the  gospel  story. 

At  suitable  seasons  missionaries  and  Bible  women  tour  among  the  vil- 
lages, and  they  also  attend  the  great  religious  festivals  where  women 
pilgrims  gather,  speaking  as  they  have  opportunity  and  distributing 
Christian  literature. 

BIBLE  TRAINING  INSTITUTE. 

We  are  now  contemplating  the  establishment  of  a  Bible  Training  In- 
stitute in  Calcutta  which  will  serve  as  a  training  centre  for  all  our  Ben- 
gal stations.  Bible  work  rankfe  side  by  side  with  school  and  medical 
work  as  a  great  evangelistic  agency. 

CHINA. 

In  1S93  the  men  missionaries  in  China  sent  home  a  request  for  unmar- 
ried women  workers.  British  Baptists  work  in  only  three  of  the  northern 
provinces,  and  we  have  to-day  only  sixteen  women  workers  representing 
us  among  the  millions  of  China's  women.  The  methods  of  work  are  the 
same  as  in  India,  except  that  we  have  alas!  no  medical  work  for  which  we 
are  responsible,  though  there  are  some  women  doctors  among  the  wives 
of  our  missionaries,  Avho  do  veiy  splendid  work.  Boarding  schools  are 
carried  on  at  four  centres  with  excellent  results,  and  many  village 
schools  are  superintended  by  missionaries.  The  supervision  and  teaching 
of  women  church-members  is  largely  entrusted  to  the  senior  women  mis- 
Bionaries  and  much  evangelistic  work  is  carried  on  in  villages. 


164  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


CONGO. 


From  our  Congo  field  in  Africa,  there  has  also  come,  within  the  past 
two  or  three  years,  the  call  for  unmarried  women,  and  there  are  now 
several  nurses  and  teachers  assisting  in  the  work  of  the  older  and  larger 
stations. 

What  remains  to  be  done°l 

CALL  FOR  ADVANCE. 

''There  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed."  Especially 
since  the  Edinburgh  Conference  the  call  for  a  great  forward  movement 
has  sounded  all  along  the  line,  and  every  missionary  society  is  feeling  its 
influence.  We  are  very  conscious,  as  are  our  sisters  on  this  side  the 
Atlantic,  that  we  have  not  done  what  we  might,  or  what  we  ought  to  have 
done  in  the  past. 

INCREASE    OF    STAFF. 

A  great  increase  in  the  staff  of  workers  is  required  all  over  the  field. 
We  have  lately  made  a  definite  calculation  as  to  the  number  of  women 
needed  adequately  to  work  our  present  fields,  and  we  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  we  might  well  double  our  staff.  This  does  not  allow  for 
the  expansion  of  work  that  must  inevitably  come  when  the  whole  world 
field  is  systematically  apportioned  to  the  different  sections  of  Christ's 
church. 

In  China,  especially  our  staff  is  deplorably  inadequate  in  face  of  the 
unparalleled  opportunity  of  the  present.  We  know  well  too  that  there  is 
abundant  material  in  the  home  church,  if  only  our  women  heard  the  call 
of  Christ  and  of  their  sisters  in  the  regions  beyond. 

LACK  OF  VOLUNTEERS  AND  REASONS  FOR  THIS  LACK. 

But  they  do  not,  and  here  is  our  most  serious  difficulty.  We  must 
frankly  confess  that  those  who  have  had  the  greatest  social  and  educa- 
tional advantages  do  not,  as  a  rale,  consecrate  their  lives  to  this,  the 
greatest  of  all  service.    This  is  especially  true  of  our  young  women. 

The  atmosphere  of  the  women's  colleges  in  Great  Britain  is  not  favor- 
able to  the  growth  of  the  missionary  spirit,  nor  is  the  home  life  of  our 
leisured  classes  helpful  in  this  respect.  The  love  of  ease  and  pleasure 
and  the  pursuit  of  amusement  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  gifted 
girls  who  might  be  such  splendid  leaders  on  the  mission  field.  While 
nominal  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  they  render  little  effective  ser- 
vice, but  fritter  away  their  lives  in  the  pursuit  of  amusement,  or  in  rarer 
instances,  devote  themselves  to  study  for  purely  selfish  ends. 

Our  recruits  for  the  mission  field  are  drawn  almost  exclusively  from 
the  noble  army  of  women  who  work  for  their  living.  A  large  proportion 
of  these  are  teachers — women  whose  vocation  fits  them  to  a  large  extent 
for  successful  work  as  missionaries.  But  the  supply  of  volunteers  is  still 
painfully  inadequate.    Why? 

Because  the  fire  of  consecration  burns  low  on  the  altar.    In  the  home 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  165 

and  in  the  church  alike  there  is  lack  of  interest  in  the  supreme  work  of 
spreading  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

Unless  this  great  Jiindrance  can  be  overcome,  our  work  must  necessar- 
ily be  cramped,  and  extension  be  impossible.  Only  by  the  weapons  of 
believing  prayer  can  the  present  indifference  be  changed  into  passionate 
earnestness.  Our  prayer  must  be  "Come  from  the  four  winds,  0  breath, 
and   breathe   upon   these     ....     that   they   may   live." 

HOME   PROBLEMS. 

At  home  we  still  have  the  problem  of  awakening  the  conscience  and 
arousing  the  interest  of  the  average  church-member.  It  is  calculated 
that  in  Great  Britain  only  one  member  in  ten  of  our  various  religious 
denominations  is  a  supporter  of  foreign  missions:  and  only  one  Baptist 
church-member  in  a  thousand  goes  to  the  foreign  field,  while  the  Mora- 
vian church  sends  one  in  sixty. 

MISSION    STUDY. 

For  the  improvement  of  this  state  of  things  we  must  look,  mainly,  I 
think,  to  the  development  of  missionary  education  especially  among  our 
children  and  young  people.  We  thank  you  for  leading  the  way  in  Mis- 
sion Study,  which  has  done  so  much  to  deepen  interest  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic. 

STUDENT  MOVEMENT. 

We  thank  you,  too,  for  the  Student  Christian  Movement,  the  most  po- 
tent factor  in  bringing  about  the  consecration  of  splendid  young  lives  to 
the  service  of  Christ  abroad. 

ORGANIZATION    AT    HOME. 

In  the  matter  of  organization,  we  are  continually  learning  from  you, 
for  we  in  Britain  are  far  behind  our  American  and  Canadian  sisters. 
Especially,  I  think,  we  should  press  forward  a  membership  crusade  which 
would  enlist  a  much  greater  number  of  our  women  as  definite  supporters, 
and,  if  possible,  we  ought  to  adopt  your  plan  of  apportionment.  Hitherto 
our  women  generally  have  not 'favored  these  methods. 

ORGANIZATION  ABROAD. 

We  trust  that  as  the  Continuation  Committee  of  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference carries  on  the  work  there  begun,  we  shall  obtain  a  clear  state- 
ment of  the  need  in  workers  of  every  part  of  the  field ;  and  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  imited  action  that  shall  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  work. 
Already  we  are  in  close  co-operation  with  Australian  Baptists  in  India, 
sharing  our  field  of  work  in  Bengal.  We  also  co-operate  with  American 
Presbyterians  in  China  and  possibly  this  Congress  may  show  us  how  we 
and  you  may  work  more  unitedly  for  the  end  we  both  have  in  view. 

SPIRITUAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  WORK. 

This  paper  would  be  sadly  incomplete  if  it  did  not  draw  attention  to 


166  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  spiritual  side  of  the  work.  There  is  a  great  and  real  danger  that 
even  missionary  Boards  and  committees  should  fix  their  attention  on 
the  purely  human  side  of  the  work,  especially  devoting  themselves  to  the 
development  or  organization  abroad  and  af  home. 

Men  and  women  who  look  only  on  the  human  side,  realizing  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  work,  its  complex  problems,  and  its  many  diffleulties,  are  al- 
ways timid,  afraid  to  go  forward,  and  are  easily  depressed. 


If  we  are  to  do  any  worthy  Avork  for  Christ  in  the  world,  we  must  live 
on  the  hill-top  of  faith.  * '  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world, 
even  our  faith."  We  must  absolutely  believe  the  word  of  our  Lord — 
''All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 

''Thou  didst  send  Me  into  the  world,  so  send  I  them  into  the  world." 
All  the  infinite  power  of  God  is  at  our  disposal  in  this  great  enterprise. 
Do  we  believe  this  ?  Shall  we  not  all  pray — ' '  Lord  increase  our  faith ' '  ? 
"All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 


How  do  we  lay  hold  upon  this  mighty  power?  By  believing  prayer. 
"If  ye  abide  in  Me,  and  My  words  abide  in  you,  ask  whatsoever  ye  will, 
and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you. ' '  Wherever  we  detect  failure  in  our  work, 
and  poverty  of  results,  is  it  not  due  to  failure  and  poverty  in  prayer? 
We  are  so  occupied  with  details,  that  we  forget  the  essentials.  "No  time 
for  prayer"  is  the  too  frequent  cry  at  our  Board  meetings,  so  filled  are 
they  with  petty  details — useful  and  necessary  enough  but  positively 
harmful  when  they  are  allowed  to  crowd  out  the  central  and  fundamental 
acts  of  devotion  from  which  spring  all  power  and  blessing  in  service. 
Let  us  jealously  guard  our  seasons  of  devotion  from  all  encroachments, 
and  multiply  these  occasions  as  far  as  we  possibly  can.  The  measure 
of  our  success  depends  absolutely  on  the  measure  and  intensity  of  our 
prayer. 

HOLY   GHOST   POWDER. 

May  I  say  in  conclusion  that  what  is  most  needed  in  Great  Britain — 
perhaps  here  also — and  on  the  mission  field — is  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Our  daily  prayer  should  be,  "Oh,  that  Thou  wouldest  rend  the 
heavens,  that  Thou  wouldest  come  down."  In  Great  Britain  we  are 
face  to  face  with  a  declining  membership,  a  growing  spirit  of  worldli- 
ness  and  indifference,  and  a  strange  and  sad  ajDathy  to  the  great  world- 
call  and  to  the  call  of  Christ.  Otily  the  breath  of  the  Holy  Spirit  can 
change  all  this  into  love,  devotion  and  whole-hearted  consecration.  "I 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life."  Let  us  seek  for 
ourselves,  and  for  the  whole  Church  of  Christ,  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  by  which  alone  we  ourselves  shall  become  "more  than  conquer- 
ors" and  shall  help  to  realize  the  sublime  ideal  of  the  Student  Move- 
ment— "the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation." 

Presiding  Officer:  I  am  glad  to  present  to  you  next,  representing 
Home  Mission  work,  an  English  Baptist  woman,  Mrs  Russell  James, 
of  London,  England. 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  167 

THE  BRITISH  BAPTIST  WOMEN'S  LEAGUE. 
By  Mrs.  RUSSELL  JAMES. 

Through  the  courtesy  ot  Miss  Crane,  the  British  Baptist  Women's 
League  has  a  place  in  your  program  this  afternoon.  Our  Secretary,  Mr. 
Shakespeare,  informed  me  it  would  fall  to  my  lot  to  speak.  You  do  not 
know  Mr.  Shakespeare  in  America  as  well  as  we  do  in  England.  There 
we  speedily  learn  that  when  he  tells  us  to  do  anything  we  do  not  ''ask 
the  reason  why,  we  simply  have  to  do  or  die,"  and  most  of  us  prefer  the 
former. 

The  Baptist  Women 's  League  is  a  new  movement  in  our  country.  It 
was  formed  little  more  than  two  years  ago  to  link  us  together  for  the 
work  of  the  churches  at  home.  It  may  seem  strange  to  you  that  in  a  de- 
nomination which  has  a  splendidly  organized  Women's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society,  our  League  for  home  has  only  recently  come  into  being.  But 
the  need  has  long  been  evident.  In  this  age  when  thought  stirs  and 
knowledge  extends,  Baptist  women  have  many  and  ofttimes  felt  how 
much  more  effectual  their  work  in  the  churches  might  become  were  there 
opened  to  them  a  wider  field  for  sympathy  and  mutual  help. 

As  I  look  back  through  the  last  two  years,  time  long  enough  to  take 
stock  of  the  situation,  I  see  that  our  League  has  done  two  things: 

1.  It  has  opened  to  many  women  new  spheres  of  labor  adequate  to 
the  measure  of  their  capacity  and  will. 

2.  It  has  been  the  means  of  spiritual  and  social  good  among  the 
churches  in  our  land. 

With  regard  to  my  first  point  as  to  new  and  larger  fields  of  labor,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  bring  before  you  our  small  beginnings,  our  hopes  and 
aspirations,  because  I  know  you  will  rejoice  with  me  that  this  movement 
in  our  churches  has  arisen,  that  you  will  realize  it  is  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  is  yet  another  link  with  that  world-wide  Wo- 
men's Movement  which  is  surely  and  steadily  permeating  every  branch 
of  society.  Whether  we  turn  to  literature,  art,  or  politics,  we  find  wo- 
men entering  in  demanding  that  which  they  have  the  will  to  do  and  the 
power  to  achieve,  and  it  was  high  time  that  the  enormous  reserve  force 
of  energy,  the  varied  gifts  and  talents  which  had  often  been  l.ying  doi-- 
mant,  so  far  as  the  church  was  concerned,  should  be  taken  and  utilized 
to  the  full  in  the  direct  servicfe  of  that  church  itself. 

We  have  realized  that  it  is  not  only  high  time  that  something  in  this 
direction  were  done,  but  that  the  future  of  our  denomination  greatly  de- 
pends upon  the  loyalty  and  faithful  work  of  our  Baptist  women.  In  the 
cord  of  loyalty  there  are  many  strands;  creed,  tradition,  but  these  will 
weaken  without  the  living  strand  of  service.  It  is  true  that  creeds  make 
strong  men  and  women.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  think  that  the  giving 
up  of  a  creed  makes  a  woman  a  better  Christian,  or  gives  her  a  larger 
heart  for  humanity.  I  believe  it  is  of  tlie  utmost  consequence  that  wo- 
men know  the  traditions  of  the  church  to  which  thoy  belong,  that  they 
hold  with  no  loose  hands  those  things  for  which  their  fathers  suffered,  and 
that  they  find  in  the  past  that  which  fires  their  imagination.  But  in  the 
last  resort,  loyalty  must  depend  upon  a  jn-esent  and  living  interest,  and 
it  is  of  vital  importance  that  women  kindle  afresh  their  enthusiasm  to- 
day by  the  work  which  they  find  to  do. 


168  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

It  has  been  said  that  all  movements  in  history  pass  through  three 
phases.  First  indifference,  then  hostility,  and  after  that  comes  the  awak- 
ened interest  and  the  victory.  This  movement  of  ours  has  been  no  ex- 
ception to  the  rule.  It  has  had  to  contend  with  indifference  and  some- 
times hostility.  The  Baptist  denomination  as  a  whole  is  somewhat  con- 
servative ;  it  has  a  tendency  to  keep  what  is  old  because  it  is  old  and  to 
reject  what  is  new  because  it  is  new.  In  many  of  our  churches  the  min- 
isters and  deacons  have  found  it  difficult  to  understand  the  need  for  a 
fresh  organization.  They  have  said  to  us:  ''You  have  always  worked  in 
our  churches,  we  could  not  have  done  without  you;  we  are  satisfied  with 
your  work  as  it  is."  They  fail  to  see  that  that  is  not  the  point.  The 
point  essential  is  whether  the  women  themselves  are  satisfied,  whether 
they  feel  they  are  being  permitted  to  give  of  their  best  in  the  service 
of  Christ  and  whether  the  sphere  opened  to  them  is  adequate  to  the 
measure  of  their  capacity  and  will. 

And  so  our  Baptist  Women's  League  is  bringing  this  about.  Many 
women  who  would  otherwise  have  passed  from  us,  or  who  would  have  re- 
mained apathetic  have  found  a  new  enthusiasm  for  service  in  our  ranks. 
As  to  my  second  point  of  the  spiritual  and  social  good  already  accom- 
plished. In  many  of  the  churches  devotional  meetings  for  women  have 
been  started  around  which  the  social  work  has  centred.  Many  women 
who  have  hitherto  been  silent  have  begun  to  pray  at  these  meetings  and 
we  are  sure  that  a  quickening  of  the  life  of  all  our  churches  will  result. 
As  to  the  social  work,  reviewed  in  detail,  a  great  deal  of  our  program 
would  not  impress  you  either  by  its  novelty  or  its  volume,  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  our  League  has  already  become  the  most  living  thing  in  some 
of  our  churches.  Our  League  has  endeavored  to  reduce  to  a  system,  to 
organize  and  develop  work  which  was  already  being  done  partially  and 
sporadically.  It  has  not  aimed  at  creating  new  women,  but  to  use  the 
powers  and  talents  of  those  who  are  willing,  nay  anxious,  for  service. 
Let  me  give  you  a  few  particulars.  To  begin  with  that  small  function  of 
welcoming  strangers.  I  know  a  lady  in  one  of  our  churches  whose  chief 
gifts  are  tact  and  sympathj'.  She  is  not  specially  clever  and  I  am  con- 
vinced that  her  position  in  the  social  and  political  world  is  due  to  her 
singular  faculty  of  knowing  the  right  word  to  speak  and  of  being  able 
to  melt  reserve  into  confidence,  but  she  goes  to  a  church  and  this  gift  is 
never  utilized  in  its  service.  In  that  same  church,  a  lonely  girl  has  come 
and  sat  in  the  gallery  week  in  and  week  out  with  no  one  speaking  to  her. 
When  this  fact  transpired,  my  friend  was  the  first  to  say:  "I  should 
love  to  have  spoken  to  her  if  I  had  ever  known  she  was  there."  This 
typical  case  cannot  occur  again  in  any  church  where  there  is  a  branch  of 
our  League.  It  is  one  of  its  functions  to  bring  together  the  friend  and 
the  friendless.  In  the  lobby  of  each  church  hangs  a  card  with  the  names 
of  those  who  are  ready  to  welcome  and  counsel  strangers,  and  never 
again  need  lonely  girls  come  and  go  with  hearts  well-nigh  breaking  for 
dear  familiar  faces  without  finding  a  friend  who  will  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ — I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  in! 

Again  and  along  the  same  lines,  our  women  have  formed  themselves 
into  Visiting  Committees.  In  a  large  church  it  is  impossible  for  the  min- 
ister to  cope  with  the  whole  of  this  work,  but  I  trust  that  now  we  shall 
not  hear  again  of  a  mother  losing  her  baby,  or  lying  in  sickness  through 
weary  months,  and  no  one  being  aware  of  the  facts. 

To  pass  to  another  department  of  service.     I  believe  that  your  Union 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  1G9 

has  already  established  several  institutions  of  its  own,  but  we  are  young 
and  are  just  about  to  found  our  first  hostel  or  home  for  girls  who  come  up 
from  the  country  to  the  town.  We  have  taken  a  house  in  Central  Lon- 
don. Central  London  is  in  one  sense  the  play-ground  of  Europe.  Thou- 
sands of  young  people  are  massed  together  in  the  great  houses  of  busi- 
ness. Cheap  and  respectable  lodgings  are  difficult  and  often  impossible; 
temptations  beset  the  girls  on  all  sides.  Only  last  month,  after  advocat- 
ing a  girls'  hostel  at  our  annual  meeting,  Mrs.  Edwards,  the  wife  of  the 
President  of  our  Union,  found  in  a  crowded  thoroughfare,  a  girl  from  the 
country,  having  come  up  to  a  situation  the  day  before,  and  had  fled  from 
a  drunken  mistiness  out  upon  the  streets,  stranded,  not  a  friend  in  that 
vast  metropolis,  little  knowing  of  the  perils  that  might  await  her.  We 
hope  to  make  this  hostel  widely  known,  believing  that  it  will  be  of  incal- 
culable good  to  many  a  young  girl  in  the  future  and  also  that  it  will  be 
the  beginning  of  many  such  institutions  in  our  big  towns. 

I  must  refer,  if  it  is  only  for  a  moment,  to  a  great  Baptist  work  in 
London  carried  on  among  the  poor  and  sick.  This  organization  is  called 
the  Deaconesses'  Home.  It  is  older  than  our  League  and,  therefore,  is 
not  really  within  my  subject,  but  I  wish  you  could  see  those  workers 
moving  by  day  and  night  in  the  tenements  and  cellars,  through  haunts 
of  vice  and  poverty  and  crime,  nursing  the  sick,  preaching  the  gospel, 
arid  being  in  very  tnxth  what  F.  B.  Meyer  has  called  them  '"The  Florence 
Nightingales  of  the  Slums." 

But  now  I  come  to  what  will  be  the  most  important  work  and  aim  of 
our  League.  We  have  hundreds  of  village  Baptist  ministers  at  home, 
who,  to  put  it  bluntly,  are  underpaid.  Our  League  has  endeavored  to 
help  these  churches,  to  make  a  link  of  sympathy  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  strong  and  the  weak.  The  branches  of  our  League  have 
been  making  garments  for  the  families  of  the  poorer  ministers.  I  have 
spoken  of  the  gifts  of  women;  no  one  denies  that  we  can  sew,  no  one 
grudges  us  the  privilege,  and  no  part  of  our  work  has  been  done  with 
such  cheerfulness  as  the  making  of  garments  for  that  village  manse 
where  the  minister's  wife,  cultured,  overtaxed,  maintains  a  heroic  strug- 
gle against  poverty  and  it  has  filled  oiu'  hearts  with  thankfulness  to  think 
of  the  many  little  boys  and  girls  tramping  our  country  roads  warmlj^ 
and  prettily  clad  during  the  past  two  winters,  because  of  the  loving  ser- 
vice of  the  members  of  our  League. 

But  our  denomination  at  h9me  is  on  the  verge  of  a  great  departure. 
It  is  on  the  eve  of  a  change  as  vast  as  that  which  began  with  Presby- 
terianism  when  Dr.  Chalmers  founded  the  Sustentation  Fund  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  There  is  a  great  scheme  about  to  be  launched  for 
Baptist  Sustentation.  Instead  of  a  plaster  upon  the  wounds,  we  are  going 
to  find  a  remedy.  In  a  word,  the  aim  is  to  provide  a  reasonable  mini- 
mum stipend  for  every  Baptist  minister  and  to  see  that  his  salary  does 
not  go  below  a  certain  sum.  As  a  first  step,  the  denomination  is  going 
to  raise  a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars.  A  better  and  brighter  day  is 
dawning  for  our  denomination,  a  day  when  so  many  of  our  ministers  will 
not  have  all  the  hope  and  joy  crushed  out  of  them  because  of  secular 
anxiety  and  care.  And  we  women  are  going  to  play  our  part  in  this. 
We  are  going  to  make  history,  we  are  going  to  raise  as  much  of  that  great 
capital  sum  as  whole-hearted  zeal  and  faith  and  love  can  achieve.  There 
are  those  who  have  said  it  is  too  big  an  undertaking  for  our  Women's 
League.    But  that  is  where  they  make  a  mistake.    Some  of  the  greatest 


170  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

things  in  history  have  been  wrought  by  a  "woman's  faith.  It  was  a  wo- 
man who  in  the  past  revolutionized  the  whole  system  of  army  nursing, 
it  is  a  woman  to-day  who  is  largely  responsible  for  the  challenge  to  our 
Poor  Law  in  England,  and  we  Baptist  women  are  finding  in  the  Susten- 
tation  Movement  that  which  stirs  and  inspires  us  to  the  greatest  effort 
we  have  ever  made.  We  are  forming  ourselves  into  committees  with  the 
idea  of  preparing  for  great  simultaneous  bazaars  to  be  held  up  and  down 
the  country.  Our  beloved  President — Mrs.  Herbert  Marnham — is  leading 
it  splendidly.  Those  who  have  gifts  of  speech  and  organization  will  do 
their  part.  There  are  those  who  have  said  to  us :  "  Oh,  why  do  you  hold 
bazaars?"  but  we  take  no  notice,  we  just  remember  that  your  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  says  that  the  world  is  divided  into  two  classes,  those 
who  move  about  and  achieve  something,  and  those  who  sit  still  and 
grumble  at  the  way  it  is  all  being  done.  And  so  we  just  go  on  with  our 
work.  The  bazaars  will  be  held  North,  South,  East,  and  West.  They 
will  be  the  women's  special  contribution.  Those  who  have  gardens  will 
lend  them,  those  who  have  large  drawing-rooms  will  put  them  at  our  dis- 
posal, all  who  have  gifts  and  talents  will  bring  them  and  use  them  for 
this  cause.  One  lady,  an  artist,  has  already  given  her  talent  for  a  whole 
month  in  the  interests  of  this  movement,  and  every  woman  in  our  League 
has  made  up  her  mind  that  she  will  work  as  she  has  never  worked  before, 
that  the  Women's  contribution  shall  be  adequate  to  the  greatness  of  the 
cause,  and  that  again  the  women  of  our  land  shall  rear  a  monument 
showing  what  can  be  accomplished  through  faith  and  sacrifice,  and  when 
we  meet  in  five  years'  time  in  Berlin,  I  shall  not  be  telling  you  of  what 
we  are  going  to  do,  but  what  we  have  done. 

Now  let  me  tell  you  of  a  very  great  advance  in  the  history  of  our  de- 
nomination. Last  spring  ten  women  w^ere  co-opted  to  the  Council  of  the 
Baptist  Union.  We  rejoice  at  this  innovation.  One  of  your  poets  has 
said: 

**A  great  city  is  that  which  has  the  greatest  men  and  women 
Where  they  enter  the  public  assembly  and  take  places  the  same  as  the 

men 
There  the  great  city  stands." 

And  we  feel  that  our  churches  and  every  organization  in  connection 
with  them  will  be  the  better  and  greater  for  men  and  women  working- 
side  by  side,  and  we  see  the  future  opening  Avith  wide  and  gracious  i^os- 
sibilities. 

I  have  said  that  we  shall  meet  in  five  years '  time ;  my  last  thought  to- 
day is  the  remembrance  of  our  meeting  five  yegirs  ago  in  our  great  Al- 
bert Hall  in  London.  You  came  to  us  then;  my  father  welcomed  many 
of  you ;  he  was  a  Baptist  minister,  he  gave  of  his  best  for  the  denomina- 
tion he  loved,  and  I  remember  as  we  all  joned  hands  in  that  vast  build- 
ing, and  thousands  of  voices  sang  in  unison:  ''God  be  with  you,  till  we 
meet  again,"  I  felt  glad  and  thankful  that  my  father's  faith  was  mine 
and  that  we  were  all  bound  together  with  one  common  ancestry.  We 
have  a  heritage  of  which  we  may  well  be  proud  as  we  look  back  and  see 
the  brave  men  and  women  who  fought  the  good  fight,  who  held  the  flag 
flying  through  the  ages  and  who  kept  the  faith  through  great  adversity. 
One  saint  of  old  sacrificed  all  that  a  woman  holds  dear,  her  native  land 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  171 

and  her  home,  the  love  of  which  is  part  of  a  woman's  very  being,  and 
which  can  never  be  eradicated  were  they  to  give  us  fifty  votes,  or  let  us 
sit  on  a  hundred  Councils.  Ihey  talk  such  foolishness,  do  they  not? 
They  would  have  to  perform  a  mighty  miracle,  they  would  have  to  change 
God  and  nature  before  the  love  of  home  and  the  love  of  little  children 
could  be  taken  from  the  heart  of  woman.  And  this  woman  of  old  left 
her  home,  and  Avent  into  exile  to  suffer  peril,  toil  and  pain,  and  she  said : 
*'I  accounted  all  nothing  in  comparison  to  liberty  of  conscience  for  the 
profession  of  Christ."  That  same  Christ  is  ours  to-day;  her  courage 
may  be  ours.  Let  us  pray  for  grace  to  serve  with  faithfulness  in  our 
day  and  generation. 

Presiding  Officer:  We  have  with  us  this  afternoon  the  President  of 
this  league  of  which  Mrs.  James  has  told  us.  She  has  asked  that  we 
will  not  press  her  for  a  speech,  but  I  do  want  to  inti'oduce  to  you  Mrs. 
Herbert  Marnham. 

Mrs.  Marj^ham  :  Dear  Friends :  I  am  told  what  I  lia\e  to  do  is  to 
stand  here  and  smile,  and  that  is  quite  easy.  You  have  already  heard  a 
representative  of  our  Baptist  Women's  League,  and  you  will  see  we  can 
be  eloquent  on  that  side  of  the  water.  But  I  would  like  to  give  you 
one  word  of  loving  greeting  from  the  Baptist  Women's  League  over 
there.  I  would  like  to  tell  you  how  full  of  love  and  admiration  we  are 
for  you  American  women.  We  are  a  very  young  league  and  we  have  a 
great  deal  to  learn,  but  we  are  happy  in  this  that  we  are  not  yet  so  old 
but  we  may  learn,  and  we  want  to  learn  from  you.  We  will  take 
back  with  us  inspiration  that  we  have  received  from  this  meeting,  the 
inspiration  that  comes  from  the  knowledge  that  we  are  all  working 
together,  you  here  and  we  in  England,  for  the  same  cause,  the  bringing 
of  the  world  to  Jesus  Christ.     (Applause.) 

Presiding  Officer:  Li  place  of  Mme.  Beklimicheff,  of  Odessa,  we  are 
to  have  an  address  from  Madame  Yasnovsky,  of  St.  Petersburg. 

Madam  Yasnovsky  was  received  with  applause  and  said :  Dear  Sis- 
ters, it  is  God  who  has  sent  me  here  to  tell  you  a  word  of  encourage- 
ment. I  grasp  your  out-stretched  hand  and  I  say,  Thank  you,  thank 
you,  from  all  your  sisters  in  the  country  I  come  from.  You  have  done 
so  much  for  us;  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  has  not  only  had  an  influence  in 
this  land,  but  it  has  Avorked  in  the  hearts  of  your  sisters  over  the 
ocean.  It  was  from  such  books  as  this  that  we  first  gathered  our 
longings  and  aspirations  for  something  higher  and  nobler  than  we  had. 
The  first  ray  of  light  that  broke  out  in  our  northern  capital  came  from 
England,  and  I  cannot  express  my  feelings  of  gratitude  to  all  of  you 
for  all  that  we  have  received.  You  have  been  working  in  our  country 
through  your  press;  you  little  knew  what  you  were  doing,  but  I  stand 
here  before  you  as  a  living  expression  of  the  work  you  have  been  doing 
in  our  country,  probably  unconscious  to  yourselves.  I  thank  my  father 
for  havinir  civen  me  an  Enclish  training  so  that  T  could  read  vour  books 


172  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

and  thus  gather  the  life  that  has,  little  by  little,  prepared  the  soil  in 
my  heart  for  receiving  the  Word  of  Life.  And  I  am  only  one  of  the 
many  women  who  would  tell  you  the  same.  It  is  thus  you  have  worked 
in  our  country  far  across  the  ocean.  If  you  would  come  to  our  little 
bookstore  you  would  see  many  tracts  which  are  just  the  translation  of 
your  best  tracts,  English  and  American.  If  you  would  look  into  our 
journals  that  we  edit,  you  would  find  many  translations  of  the  ad- 
dresses of  your  best  preachers,  and  thus  you  and  they  are  working  in 
our  country,  and  it  is  thus  due  to  you  that  much  of  the  light  has  been 
spread  in  Russia.  When  we  first  understood  the  glad  tidings  of  salva- 
tion, when  we  realized  that  the  fetters  of  sin  were  broken  by  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  we  were  set  free,  we  started  out  on  our  work  without 
any  training  but  that  which  we  got  through  your  books,  and  out  of  this 
Book  (Bible)  and  our  hearts  aglow  with  gratitude  to  the  One  who  had 
redeemed  us,  we  set  out  on  our  work  as  best  we  knew.  We  spread  the 
gospel  first  of  all  around  us;  it  was  near  our  homes  that  the  glad  tid- 
ings were  first  preached.  The  conversion  of  our  servants  brought  con- 
versions in  the  villages,  because  our  servants  having  heard  the  glad 
news  went  to  their  villages,  taking  Apostle  Paul  with  them,  to  tell  their 
relations  of  what  the  Lord  had  done  for  them.  Our  own  friends  and 
relations  were  converted  and  thus  we  went  on,  working  quietly  because 
we  could  not  do  it  openly  just  then.  Many  friends  opened  their  draw- 
ing rooms,  and  we  gathered  in  small  circles,  reading  the  word,  studying 
our  Bibles,  and  preparing  ourselves  for  his  service  which  we  knew 
would  commence  when  the  doors  would  be  more  open.  We  have  been 
waiting  and  praying  and  we  had  the  comfort  to  know  that  across  the 
ocean  many  friends  were  prajdng  for  us  in  England,  and  thus  to  these 
united  prayers  God  has  been  leading  on.  We  opened  classes  for  the 
children,  inviting  poor  children  to  come  and  learn  needle  work,  and 
while  they  were  thus  occupied  we  read  stories  to  them,  stories  from 
your  English  books,  which  at  that  time  we  might  not  translate  and 
print,  but  knowing  the  English  language  we  used  that  for  the  service 
of  the  Lord,  and  we  read  your  English  books  in  Russian  to  the  listening 
children,  and  their  hearts  were  moved  and  many  of  them  came  to  the 
Lord.  We  arranged  classes  for  the  women,  invited  them  to  come  and 
hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  they  willingly  did,  and  eagerly  ac- 
cepted the  word  of  salvation.  At  that  time  it  was  no  easy  thing,  be- 
cause to  receive  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  meant  suffering  in  our 
country,  but  they  were  not  afraid,  and  once  they  saw  the  truth  they 
accepted  it  and  stepped  out  as  workers  also. 

We  worked  hand  in  hand,  brothers  and  sisters,  because  we  were  too 
few  to  separate.  The  need  was  great,  the  workers  few.  We 
gave  needlework  to  poor  women  and  when  the  articles  were  fin- 
ished we  used  to  sell  them  also  at  bazaars.  When  the  women 
came  to  fetch  their  work  we  profited  by  this  occasion  to  speak 
to  them  of  the  salvation  of  their  souls.  This  gave  us  the  opportunity. 
At  Christmas  time  we  used  to  invite  the  mothers  and  the  children  and 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  173 

used  this  as  an  opportunity  for  telling  them  of  Jesus.  The  Christmas 
tree  helped  us  to  explain  to  them  what  the  birth  of  our  Saviour  meant, 
and  we  tried  to  go  deeper  and  tell  them  of  the  fruits  that  God  expected 
from  their  lives,  when  once  they  were  saved.  And  so  the  work  went  on, 
perhaps  underhand  1  would  say,  because  little  was  known  of  it,  we 
could  not  speak  of  it,  we  could  not  write  of  it,  and  so  I  think  perhaps 
you  have  been  little  acquainted  with  your  sisters  in  Russia.  So  it  has 
been  for  many  years  until  lately  when  we  got  religious  liberty,  and  we 
could  with  open  doors,  and  without  being  afraid,  invite  our  sisters  to 
come  and  have  tea  or  coffee  or  enjoy  a  meeting,  and  we  could  speak 
without  fear.  Now  the  work  is  going  on  widely;  there  is  great  hunger 
in  the  land.  Wherever  we  open  a  meeting  the  halls  are  always  too 
small,  and  the  spirit  of  devotion  is  very  wonderful.  We  are  building 
a  chapel  now  in  St.  Petersburg  and  if  I  could  only  tell  you  of  the  won- 
derful story  of  the  devotion  of  the  sisters !  Some  time  ago  a  young  wo- 
man brought  me  her  gold  watch  and  she  said,  ''I  have  given  all  I  had 
but  I  wish  to  give  more,  and  I  was  thinking  what  more  I  could  give  to 
the  Lord,  and  then  I  remembered  that  I  had  a  gold  watch  and  I  have 
brought  it  to  lay  another  brick  in  the  walls  of  the  house  we  are  build- 
ing. Then  a  poor  working  woman  came,  she  was  a  laundress,  and  all 
her  savings  were  $35.  She  brought  those  savings,  and  she  said :  ' '  You 
know,  after  the  sermon  last  night  I  had  such  a  burning  heart,  I  had 
such  a  desire  to  devote  myself  and  my  all  to  the  Lord  that  I  thought  I 
would  bring  my  savings,  but  after  the  meeting  one  of  the  sisters,  some- 
body present,  told  me,  'Oh,  don't  be  so  foolish  to  give  away  all  you 
have  earned,'  and  I  went  home  with  the  impression  I  would  not  give, 
but  that  evening  as  I  was  going  to  bed  there  was  something  that  gave 
me  unrest  and  I  thought.  Oh,  can  it  be  that  I  shall  be  sorry  for  the  sake 
of  Jesus  who  has  done  so  much  for  me,  to  give  away  all  I  have;  and 
I  have  brought  you  this  money.  At  first  I  thought  I  would  give  it  as  a 
loan,  but  now  I  cannot  even  do  that.  Will  you  keep  it  altogether?" 
Many  of  the  children  do  the  same;  they  bring  their  rings  and  their 
bracelets  that  they  have  and  they  put  them  in  the  funds.  Some  time 
ago  we  had  a  large  meeting  and  when  those  present  were  invited  to  arise 
who  wished  to  give  their  hearts  to  Jesus,  among  the  rest  a  young  wo- 
man arose  who  drew  my  attention  to  her.  I  approached  her  after  the 
meeting  and  after  having  spoken  to  her  we  knelt  down  and  prayed  and 
here  at  once  she  gave  her  heart  to  the  Lord.  She  afterwards  told  me 
that  it  was  the  first  meeting  she  had  ever  attended  in  her  life,  and  the 
light  dawned  at  once  when  she  heard  the  message  of  glad  tidings;  and 
when  she  came  home  she  said  she  had  not  slept  all  that  night  but  she 
sat  over  her  Testament  reading  it  over  and  over  again  and  now  she  is 
one  of  the  most  earnest  workers.  She  is  a  nurse  in  the  hospital  and 
saj's  she  is  going  to  work  for  the  Lord  and  help  as  much  as  she  can. 

We  have  our  Sunday-schools;  we  don't  call  them  Sunday-schools,  we 
call  them  Children's  Meetings,  and  we  go  through  the  same  program 
that  you  have  here.     The  children  come  most  willingly,  and  they  learn 


174  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

their  Golden  Texts  by  heart  very  gladlj^,  never  forgetting  them,  and  the 
truth  enters  into  their  hearts.  They  accept  the  word  with  gladness. 
Sometimes  one  would  think  that  they  are  too  young  to  understand,  but 
I  am  surprised  to  hear  the  stories  that  their  parents  tell  me  of  what 
they  do  when  they  come  home,  and  how  the  truth  through  them  comes 
to  the  parents.  Some  parents  came  to  thank  us  for  their  children  be- 
cause they  said,  ^'Now,  our  children  have  grown  so  much  better,"  and 
some  of  these  children  when  they  first  come  and  we  ask  them  if  they 
know  who  Jesus  is,  they  don't  know  even  that.  A  little  country  lass 
came  to  me;  I  saw  at  once  by  her  dress  and  voice  that  she  came 
straight  from  the  country,  and  I  thought  she  would  not  understand 
what  was  told  her  at  the  lesson ;  it  would  tire  her,  I  thought,  and  I 
watched  her  little  rosy  face,  but  I  saw  her  eyes  bright  and  she  was  lis- 
tening. She  did  not  seem  dull,  and  after  the  lesson  was  over  I  asked 
her  if  she  would  come  next  Sunday.  She  said,  ''Oh,  yes,  and  I  will 
bring  my  mother  with  me."  And  when  she  came  a  Sunday  or  two 
later  she  had  learned  all  the  Golden  Texts  beginning  from  January,  all 
one  after  the  other  and  if  I  would  ask  her  she  could  repeat  to  me.  We 
gather  our  young  sisters  also.  Now,  little  by  little  we  are  beginning  to 
have  more  of  an  organization,  what  we  could  not  have  before,  and  we 
have  our  young  girls  come  together;  they  are  anxious  to  do  missionary 
work  and  they  go  about  the  hospitals  giving  tracts  and  Testaments. 
They  speak  of  the  Lord  to  all  those  whom  they  meet  and  you  would  be 
surprised  at  a  meeting  sometimes  if  one  asks  them  to  witness  for  the 
Lord  or  to  tell  us  what  they  have  done  during  the  week,  how  one  after 
another  arises  to  tell  of  the  story  she  has  been  repeating  to  others  and 
thus  sending  the  truth  further  and  further  on.  We  also  have  sewing 
meetings;  we  sew,  and  our  sisters  have  been  able  in  this  way  to  get 
some  money.  About  five  hundred  roubles  we  got  at  our  last  bazaar  to 
help  for  the  building  of  the  chapel.  That  was  a  great  encouragement; 
that  showed  to  them  that  their  work  was  not  in  vain,  that  we  could  also 
procure   means. 

We  are  able  to  uphold  a  missionary;  the  circle  of  women  has  now 
a  missionary  that  they  keep  up  themselves  among  the  Russian  brothers 
to  go  in  the  country  and  preach  where  they  can.  We  have  great  need 
of  more  Christian  literature,  and  many  of  the  sisters  who  know  the 
languages  are  busy  translating,  and  we  prepare  for  the  press  tracts,  so 
that  we  might  spread  the  gospel  by  means  of  these  little  books  to  the 
distant  parts  of  the  country  that  we  cannot  reach  ourselves.  Having 
already  witnessed  to  you  how  much  you  have  done  for  us  by  your  books, 
we  want  to  do  the  same  now  sending  out  these  books  in  Russian  so  that 
those  who  do  not  know  your  language  may  profit  by  them.  We  are 
praying  and  waiting  for  better  times  still.  It  is  thanks  to  prayer  that 
God  has  brought  us  so  far  and  we  believe  that  God  will  bring  us  further 
still,  and  I  would  like  to  tell  you  to  take  courage  and  go  on  with  your 
work  as  I  see  you  are  doing.  The  faithful  true  lives  cannot  remain 
without   fruit,   and  here   as   you   are   working,   your   faithful   lives  will 


Wednesday,  June  21. J    RECORD  OF  I'ROt'EEDlMJS.  175 

speak  to  those  far  away  and  you  will  bear  fruit  not  only  here  in  your 
country  but  in  distant  parts  where  you  cannot  reach  yourselves.  I 
would  much  like  to  acquaint  you  more  witli  Kussia,  1  would  like  to  tell 
you  of  the  f;reat  revival  and  your  liearts  would  rejoice.  And  now  I 
would  so  much  ask  you  to  keep  your  Russian  sisters  on  your  hearts. 
Will  you  pray  for  us,  will  you  help  us  by  your  prayers'?  You  have 
encouraged  us  much  by  giving  us  the  possibility  of  being  here  at  this 
Convention.  I  shall  return  home  full  of  courage,  new  courage,  new 
aspirations  to  work  in  my  own  laud.  You  have  not  always  had  good 
times,  and  I  see  how  far  you  have  got  on  by  your  courage  and  j'our 
faith,  and  I  will  tell  our  sisters  at  home  that  we  must  pick  up  courage, 
have  faith  in  God,  pray  and  go  on,  for  he  is  faithful  and  lie  is  true. 
(Applause.) 
Hymn,  ''What  a  Friend  We  Have  in  Jesus." 

Presiding  Officer:  We  come  now  to  this  interesting  roll  call  of  na- 
tions. We  wish  that  we  might  have  a  representative  of  every  nation 
here,  but  we  are  glad  that  we  can  welcome  so  many.  We  have  heard 
from  England  twice;  now  from  Great  Britain  we  are  to  have  one  more 
representative  in  Mrs.  D.  M.  Scott,  of  Scotland. 

Mrs.  Scott  :  My  Dear  American  Cousins :  It  is  a  very  unexpected 
honor,  this,  and  one  which  I  could  have  wished  had  been  conferred  upon 
some  other  woman,  to  speak  in  the  i3resence  of  this  great  Convention  on 
behalf  of  the  women  of  Gi'eat  Britain.  First,  let  me  thank  you  in  the 
name  of  all  British  women  here,  you  our  kind  American  hosts  and 
hostesses,  for  your  gracious  and  considerate  and  abundant  hospitality. 
We  are  deeply  glad  of  this  opportunity  of  visiting  you  at  your  own 
homes;  for  you  are  not  only  a  great  nation  who  are  greatly  honored 
and  esteemed,  but  you  are  our  kinsfolk,  the  inheritors  with  us  of  the 
mighty  treasures  contained  in  our  common  English  language.  It  is  no 
small  bond  that  together  -we  possess  that  noble  monument  of  devout 
learning,  the  authorized  English  version  of  the  Bible.  And  next  to  the 
Bible  in  value  to  our  English-speaking  people  we  possess  in  common  also 
our  myriad-minded  Shakespeare;  and  as  Baptists  we  have  a  peculiar  in- 
terest in  that  sainted  dreamer  who,  like  Paul,  counted  himself  among 
the  chief  of  sinners  and  yet  who  I  believe  was  one  of  God's  sainted  men, 
John  Bunyan.  Truly,  we  are  heirs  together  of  a  great  inheritance;  we 
have  a  mighty  past  behind  us.  Of  the  future  what  duties  are  there, 
what  privileges  are  there  before  us  which  together  we  may  fulfil  in 
bringing  help  and  service  to  mankind?  Much  I  believe,  much  before  the 
English-sjieaking  nations  of  the  world.  But  at  this  time  I  would  only 
refer  for  a  moment  to  the  women's  side  of  the  work,  although  men  and 
women  must  work  together  with  and  for  each  other. 

No  nation  can  be  happy  or  great  except  as  their  women  are  the  hon- 
ored partners  and  the  fellow-workers  with  the  men.  When  the  woman 
is  either  the  slave  or  the  plaything  of  man.  the  men  and  the  nation  are 


176  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

degraded.  It  shows  that  our  social  conditions  are  still  far  from  per- 
fect that  there  should  be  a  woman's  question  at  all,  and  assuredly  it 
shows  that  our  understanding  of  Christianity  and  the  teaching  and 
spirit  of  our  Lord  Christ  is  still  far  from  being  truly  enlightened  and 
complete,  for  he  has  swept  away  all  such  distinctions,  distinctions  of 
race,  of  speech,  of  color,  and  also  distinctions  of  sex.  We  as  men  and 
women  differ  no  doubt,  just  as  we  as  individuals  differ,  and  we  have 
different  functions  to  fulfil.  Our  Lord  entrusted  to  us  different  tal- 
ents, different  in  character  and  different  in  amount,  but  we  all  have  our 
own  function  to  perform  in  the  body  of  the  church.  We  are  all  mem- 
bers of  one  another,  drawing  our  life  from  him.  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  too  much  in  the  past  women  have  spent  their  strength  in  de- 
manding their  rights.  To  me  it  seems  it  is  our  duties  we  want,  and  it 
is  as  we  are  workers  in  the  church  with  our  Christian  brethren  that  we 
go  ahead  to  fulfil  the  duties  which  our  Lord  has  given  us  to  do.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Mmle.  Fetler,  representing  Russia,  spoke  as  follows :  Dear  Friends 
in  America,  I  am  very  thankful  for  all  th&  kindnesses  you  have  showed 
to  me  and  as  I  have  got  the  privilege  to  speak  to  you  in  the  name  of  our 
Russian  sisters  I  am  very  honored  I  must  tell  you,  for  this  privilege 
that  you  have  given  to  me.  Now  I  am  very  glad  that  I  am  able  to  ex- 
press to  you  the  heartiest  greetings  of  the  women  in  Russia.  I  am  very 
sorry  and  my  heart  is  aching  that  I  have  to  tell  you  that  the  move- 
ment among  the  women  in  Russia  is  not  very  far  yet.  We  are  just  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  work,  we  are  just  waking  up  and  trying  to  do 
some  work.  But  the  Russian  woman  is  such  a  one  that  if  you  once 
wake  her  up  and  once  let  her  begin  to  work  she  will  carry  it  on  and  on 
and  continue  it  with  the  greatest  energy  and  with  patience  and  with  faith 
in  God.  We  have  very  few  Baptist  workers  among  our  women  in  Russia. 
But  those  who  began  the  work  have  put  their  very  soul  in  this  work, 
and  we  have  also  very  many  women  who  are  trying  to  do  some  work 
though  not  openly.  We  are  not  as  far  yet  as  you  are  here  in  this  coun- 
try or  in  England  or  somewhere  else.  I  must  tell  you  that  in  Russia 
the  women  are  still  very  far  behind  the  men.  I  am  very  glad  that  the 
men  are  not  here  from  Russia  or  they  would  be  very  cross  for  me  to 
speak  against  them.  But  now  I  am  sorry  that  we  are  so  far  behind  the 
men  but  the  women  are  trying  to  come  out  of  their  sleepiness,  to  wake 
up  and  to  do  some  work.  For  instance,  let  me  just  tell  you  how  we  are 
carrying  on  the  meetings  where  Avomen  workers  are.  We  have  some 
few  sisters  who  are  trying  to  do  something  and  in  the  south  of  Russia 
one  of  the  sisters  had  some  meetings  and  the  people  who  came  there 
were  so  impressed  by  this  simple  speaking  of  this  sister  that  they  were 
converted  by  hundreds.  In  the  south  of  Russia  especially,  there  is  such 
a  custom  about  the  men  and  women  sitting  separately;  it  would  be  very 
funny  for  you  to  see  them  sitting  the  women  on  one  side  and  the  men 
on     the     other,     and     they     don't      dare     to     go      from      one      side 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  177 

to  the  other,  or  else  everyone  would  be  very  much  offended.  But  i  am 
glad  to  tell  you  that  the  work  is  beginning  and  I  am  very  glad  that 
they  have  been  able  to  send  me  over  here,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  go  back 
and  tell  them  about  all  the  kindnesses  we  have  received  from  you.  I  have 
just  such  a  picture  in  my  soul  how  Russia  is  before  my  eyes.  Let  me 
compare  Russia  with  the  little  sister.  You  will  be  the  big  sister,  the 
grown-up  sister,  who  is  able  to  do  much  work  and  who  is  strong  and 
who  is  fearless  and  going  on  with  very  much  faith  and  bcrength.  But 
so  it  is  not  in  Russia.  We  still  are  so  weak  and  nearly  fainting  away, 
because  the  task  we  see  before  us  seems  to  be  so  great  and  we  are  afraid 
that  we  shall  never  attain  to  it. 

Now,  I  will  tell  you  how  Russia  stays  before  my  eyes.  I  should  like 
to  compare  her,  as  I  said,  with  your  little  sister  and  she  is  just  waking 
up  and  is  stretching  out  her  hands  to  get  the  living  waters  of  salvation 
and  to  get  some  more  knowledge  and  to  get  further  on.  But  this  way 
to  the  rock  where  the  living  waters  are  flowing  out  is  so  far  and  it  seems 
to  be  so  high,  and  such  mountains,  and  we  are  afraid  that  we  shall 
never  reach  it.  Now  the  little  sister  is  stretching  out  her  hands  and 
trying  to  get  this  living  water  but  it  seems  so  hard  to  get  there.  Yet 
we  hope  we  shall  get  there  once.  I  know  our  American  sisters  and 
English  sisters  and  other  sisters  are  doing  much  already.  You  can  do 
still  more  if  you  will.  So  do,  if  you  want  to  do  some  more,  and  as  you 
have  shaken  my  hand  so  very  heartily  while  I  have  been  here,  stretch 
out  your  hand  a  little  more  and  shake  the  hands  of  all  the  sisters  in 
Russia.     Do  it  and  God  will  bless  you.     (Applause.) 

Mrs.  Peter  Doycheff,  representing  Bulgaria,  said :  I  cannot  speak  so 
nice  as  all  of  j'ou,  but  you  will  excuse  me.  When  I  pray  for  all  of  you 
to  pray  for  me  for  the  Lord  to  help  me  so  that  I  may  say  five  words 
for  him  before  you.  You  know,  dear  sisters  and  brothers  who  are  here, 
that  I  cannot  speak  your  nice  English,  and  let  the  Lord  explain  to  you 
the  need  which  I  have  in  my  heart.  I  want  to  tell  you  a  very  little  of 
my  suffering  for  Christ  Jesus  in  Bulgaria,  especially  in  our  towns  where 
we  live.  When  we  went  first  in  this  town,  Tchirpan,  I  was  sick  about 
nine  years  and  I  have  been  so  weak,  only  skin  and  bone,  you  can  under- 
stand how  then  I  have  been,  how  weak.  And  I  pray  the  Lord,  and  the 
other  sister,  she  is  now  in  America,  she  is  from  Russia,  Mrs.  Kolesni- 
koff,  and  she  prayed  the  Lord  for  my  health  and  we  have  answer  from 
him  that  he  gave  me  health,  and  I  was  so  glad  that  I  can  work  for  him 
in  this  town  which  is  like  ground  which  is  not  digged  yet — I  don't  know 
how  to  say  it — all  grass;  I  don't  know  how  to  tell  you;  you  can  under- 
stand what  I  am  thinking.  Our  working  there  was  that  way.  Every 
day  when  I  finished  my  work  at  house — of  coui'se  I  am  alone,  I  have 
no  servant  or  children  to  help  me — I  finish  my  work  and  then  my  hus- 
band will  say,  ''Let  us  go  in  the  street  and  you  will  sing  and  then  the 
people  will  be  gathered  around  us  and  I  will  begin  and  preach."  And 
we  do  this,  when  I  was  health}-,  and  just  when  I  began  to  sing  a  verse 


178  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

of  some  of  the  hymns  they  will  be  gathered  around  us  and  he  will 
begin  and  preach  and  just  when  we  finish  some  of  the  words  which  we 
are  saying  then  they  will  begin  and  throw  stones  upon  us  and  beat  us 
and  so  Ave  have  to  find  some  place  to  be  safe.  Especially  I  want  to  tell 
you  once  when  we  have  been  beaten  very  much,  and  since  this  beatness 
— I  don't  know  how  to  say  it — it  was  at  Easter,  the  second  day  of  Eas- 
ter, when  all  the  towns  are  going  outside  as  you  have  i^arks  here,  and 
they  are  going  outside  to  play  and  sing  something,  but  they  are  playing 
when  they  are  drinking  wine  and  whisky,  such  playing  have  they.  A 
minister  was  guest  in  our  home;  he  said,  *'Mrs.  Doycheff,  you  go  by  me 
and  you  begin  to  sing  and  I  will  begin  to  preach."  I  went  by  him  and 
a  little  girl  came  before  me  and  said,  "Please,  Mrs.  Doycheff,  sing  a 
hymn  for  us."  I  began  to  sing  this  hymn — (Sings  in  Bulgarian,  "Won- 
derful Words  of  Life").  Then  just  I  finish  this  verse  and  the  people 
of  the  town  were  gathered  around  us  and  they  began  to  beat  us  with 
stones  like  the  frozen  rain  that  comes  from  the  heavens  and  they  beat 
us,  with  my  husband,  threw  his  papers  and  we  are  going  to  the  people 
and  they  are  running  because  the  stones  are  falling  on  their  heads.  All 
my  body  was  blue  with  beating  and  my  hand  was  hurt  and  the  hand  of 
my  husband  was  broken  and  we  went  then  in  our  home.     (Applause.) 

Mrs.  R.  S.  Gray,  representing  New  Zealand,  said :  My  dear  friends : 
I  was  going  to  say  my  dear  sisters,  but  you  in  America  do  things  rather 
differently  from  what  we  do;  when  we  say  a  Women's  Mass  Meeting, 
we  mean  women,  we  don't  mean  men  (Laughter).  I  said  to  one  of  the 
ladies,  "Is  this  one  of  your  women's  meetings?"  and  she  said,  "Oh, 
well,  it  is  so  hard  to  keep  the  men  out. ! '  I  feel  greatly  honored  in 
being  asked  to  represent  New  Zealand  at  this  meeting  this  afternoon. 
I  did  not  understand  I  was  to  until  I  arrived  here.  I  have  simply  to 
bring  you  loving  greetings  from  our  women.  The  Baptist  Women's 
Missionary  Society  is  very  small  yet.  We  are  growing,  as  New  Zea- 
land is  growing  in  everything,  but  the  Society  so  far  is  very  small.  We 
have  only  about  six  hundred  and  fifty  members,  and  we  raise  about 
$1,440  a  year,  I  think;  that  is  about  $2.50  per  head.  Our  field  is  Pron- 
beria  in  India,  and  we  help  to  support  three  lady  missionaries,  seven  na- 
tive women,  and  we  help  with  two  beds  in  the  hospital.  The  women  in 
New  Zealand  take  part  a  great  deal  in  our  political  affairs  of  course;  we 
vote  there.  We  are  not  great  speakers,  but  we  can  vote  and  we  are 
helping  a  great  deal  in  sending  out  the  bad  things  that  come  into  our 
island,  such  as  drink  and  gambling,  and  we  vote  in  that  way  and  we  are 
trying  our  hardest  to  keep  our  country  clean.  We  just  now  ask  you  to 
accept  our  best  thanks  for  having  us  here  and  showing  us  all  the  hospi- 
tality you  have.  We  already  love  you  and  we  feel  quite  at  home  among 
the  American  people.  We  felt  that  we  were  a  little  bit  misunderstood, 
that  New  Zealand  was  a  little  bit  misunderstood;  some  people  asked  if 
we  spoke  Portuguese;  they  did  not  know  that  we  could  speak  English, 
that  we   could  read  English.     Perhaps   after  this  you  will  understand 


Wednesday,  June  21.  |     RI'A'Oin)  OF  I'UOVEEDINGS.  179 

New  Zealand  a  little  bit  better  when  you  have  heard  a  few  New  Zeal- 
anders  at  this  great  Conference.     (Applause.) 

Mrs.  John  Firstbrook,  representing  Canada,  said:  Madam  President 
and  Friends  of  this  Great  Alliance :  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  this  af- 
ternoon to  bring  to  you  greetings  from  the  Baptist  women  of  the  whole 
of  Canada.  We  have  not  brought  these  greetings  over  mountain  tops 
or  across  deep  rivers.  There  is  a  fence  between  us,  but  the  pickets  have 
been  torn  off  in  so  many  places  that  except  perhaps  at  the  custom 
houses  we  are  never  told  that  we  ai-e  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  fence. 
It  was  my  great  pleasure  last  year  to  visit  a  great  many  of  the  Christian 
missions  of  the  woi'Id.  1  saw  with  my  own  eyes  the  face-covered  Mo- 
hammedan Avomen,  the  women  in  the  Indian  Zenana,  fading  her  life 
away,  kept  away  from  God's  blessed  sunlight.  We  saw  the  women  of 
China  with  their  feet  bound  and  their  hearts  bound  by  heathen  super- 
stition, and  we  felt  while  Ave  were  there  that  if  all  the  women  in  this 
bi'oad  land  could  only  know  what  has  come  to  pass  in  benefits  directly 
or  indirectly  by  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  would  raise  such  a  shout 
of  glory  to  God  that  the  veiy  heavens  would  be  rent.  But  to-day  we 
come  with  greetings  from  our  friends  across  the  line. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  asked  if  I  would  join  a  Woman's  Rights  Society, 
and  I  said,  ''Well,  I  am  so  busy  working  already  in  a  woman's  rights 
society  that  I  have  no  time  to  give  to  any  other,"  and  when  asked  what 
society  that  Avas  I  said,  "The  Christian  Baptist  Church."  The  Church 
of  God  gives  to  Avoman  a  vote,  gives  to  Avoman  the  privilege  and  bene- 
fits of  Avorking  for  the  holy  emancipation  of  our  nation.  To  be  sure, 
we  are  told,  not  to  usurp  authority  over  our  brother  man;  to  be  sure, 
we  are  told  that  in  time  of  strife  and  trouble  we  are  to  learn  to  keep  si- 
lence; but  on  the  other  hand,  into  our  hand  is  given  the  guardianship 
and  the  care  of  the  Christian  home,  which  is  the  bulwark  of  the  nations 
under  heaven  for  Christian  influence.  I  may  say  to  all  women  that  are 
AA'orking  for  missions,  that  your  work  is  changing  the  face  of  the  heath- 
en Avorld.  We  have  seen  in  the  Zenanas  of  India  the  little  children  sing- 
ing the  songs  of  Zion  and  reading  the  Scripture  to  the  mother  Avho  could 
not  either  read  or  sing.  And  Avhen  in  the  closed  streets  of  Canton  I  saAV 
a  sight  that  made  me  both  sorry  and  glad,  a  woman  with  feet  unable  to 
walk  because  she  had  been  bound  by  that  cruel  custom,  Avas  carried  on 
the  back  of  a  younger  woman,  probably  her  daughter,  and  as  they  dis- 
appeared through  those  naiTOAv  streets  I  felt  in  my  heart  that  indeed 
the  old  things  are  passing  away  and  some  things  are  becoming  new. 
(Applause.) 

A  Delegate:  It  may  be  of  interest  to  these  people  to  know  that  Mrs. 
Firstbrook,  of  Canada,  is  a  sister  of  Isabella  Crawford,  our  plucky  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians.     (Applause.) 

Miss  N.  H.  Burroughs,  representing  the  National  Convention  (Negro) 


180  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

said :  I  am  delighted  to  bring  to  you  the  greetings  from  the  National 
Baptist  Convention.  I  am  pleased  to  be  introduced  by  the  president  of 
the  organization  that  first  brought  the  light  to  my  people  forty-seven 
years  ago,  and  I  am  pleased  to  have  had  the  invitation  to  be  present  on 
this  platform  to-day,  urged  by  the  splendid  secretary  of  the  Women's 
Auxiliary  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  which  secretary  begged 
that  we  come  here  to  tell  of  the  work  that  had  been  done  by  colored 
Baptist  women  in  these  forty-seven  years,  particularly  in  the  ten  years 
of  their  organization.  I  bring  you,  therefore,  greetings  from  all  the  col- 
ored Baptists  of  our  great  countrj'.  It  is  the  business  of  Baptists  to 
grow,  and  I  bring  to  you  a  record  of  the  most  remarkable  growth  in 
the  history  of  Baptists  since  the  first  one  stood  in  the  River  Jordan  and 
gave  us  definitely  to  understand  that  baptism  was  a  type  of  righteous- 
ness. During  these  forty-seven  years  of  our  freedom  we  have  to  the 
credit  of  the  denomination  and  to  the  glory  of  God  right  here  on  the 
American  Continent  two  million  eight  hundred  thousand  colored  Bap- 
tists. Right  here  on  the  American  Continent  seventeen  thousand  colored 
Baptist  churches,  and  one  of  the  largest  publishing  plants  owned  in 
the  world,  supplying  literature  for  fourteen  thousand  colored  Baptist 
Sunday-schools,  and  thank  God  that  a  slave  woman  gave  us  the  man, 
the  Baptist,  who  started  and  now  presides  over  the  largest  industrial 
school  in  all  the  world,  Booker  T.  Washington. 

We  have  not  done  this  work  alone,  but  we  have  been  helped  by  the 
friends  in  the  North  and  encouraged  by  the  friends  in  the  South.  We 
have  ever  had  leading  on  this  great  host  of  colored  Baptists  the 
help  of  Almighty  God  from  whose  book  we  early  learned  that  we  can  do 
all  things  through  him  that  strengtheneth  us.  Ten  years  ago  the  colored 
Baptist  women  of  this  country  unfurled  a  banner  to  the  breeze,  and 
upon  that  banner  these  words  appeared :  ' '  The  world  for  Christ ;  woman 
arise,  he  ealleth  for  thee."  And  to-day  in  the  colored  Baptist  churches 
of  America,  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  report  to  you  that  you  will  find 
over  a  million  and  a  half  of  women  as  loyal  as  women  can  be,  poor  in 
this  world's  goods  but  rich  in  the  Spirit,  and  they  come  to  this  meet- 
ing to  declare  unto  you  that  wherever  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to 
be  espoused  these  women  will  not  be  lacking  in  their  faith  and  in  their 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  lowly  Nazarene.  During  these  short  years 
of  our  emancipation  we  have  built  churches,  we  have  built  schools,  so 
that  in  every  southern  city  of  this  great  nation  you  Avill  find  from  two 
to  three  splendid  Baptist  schools  for  our  own  people.  While  we  have 
been  helped  by  others  we  have  been  helping  ourselves,  and  just  two 
years  ago  the  colored  Baptist  women  of  this  country  raised  down  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  a  National  school  for  women  and  girls,  which  insti- 
tution is  born  for  the  purpose  of  training  our  girls  that  they  may  go 
forth  into  the  world  to  make  homes  and  lead  our  people  into  a  glorious 
future.  Two-thirds  of  all  the  money  raised  for  church  purposes,  two- 
thirds  of  all  the  money  raised  for  Christian  education,  two-thirds  of  the 
money  given  for  charity  by  the  colored  Baptist  people  of  this  country  is 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  181 

given  by  the  colored  Baptist  women.  And  we  remember  the  spiritual 
poverty  of  our  sisters  in  darkness,  and  for  these  years  of  our  freedom, 
ever  since  we  have  had  a  Foreign  Mission  Board,  our  women  out  of 
their  penury  have  been  sending  their  earnings  across  the  waters  that 
our  sisters  should  have  a  knowledge  of  the  glad  tidings.  We  are  with 
you,  and  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  and  say,  "Speak, 
Lord,  our  souls  are  hushed  to  hear  what  thou  shalt  say.  Overwhelming 
is  the  responsibility,  but  speak.  Lord,  and  tell  us  what  our  duty  is,  how 
high  or  how  low,  and  then  great  God  and  Master  give  us  strength  to  do 
it."     (Applause.) 

Presiding  Officer:  Miss  Burroughs  is  also  at  the  head  of  one  of 
these  schools,  the  National  Training  School  for  Women  and  Girls  at 
Washington,  D.  C.     Some  of  these  women  will  sing  for  us  now. 

Singing  by  quintette  composed  of  students  from  the  National  Train- 
ing School:  ''Nobody  Knows  the  Trouble  I  See." 

Presiding  Officer:  The  Baptist  women  of  the  United  States  are 
banded  together  in  groups  in  the  following  organizations :  The  Women 's 
Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  East ;  the  Women 's  Baptist  Foreign 
Missionarj'  Society,  West;  the  Women's  Missionary  Union  Auxiliary  to 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention;  and  the  Women's  American  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society.  The  President  of  the  Women's  Missionary 
Union  will  answer  to  the  Roll  Call  for  the  United  States. 

Miss  Fanny  E.  S.  Heck,  representing  the  United  States,  said:  Some 
pleasures  become  burdens  from  their  very  greatness,  and  you  can  well 
understand  how  one  heart  is  burdened  to  try  to  express  the  meaning  of 
this  women 's  meeting  in  connection  with  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  the 
meaning  of  this  meeting  to  the  four  million  and  more  of  the  Baptist 
women  of  the  United  States.  Our  mental  life  is  marked  by  great  world 
thoughts,  God  in  his  universe,  God  in  the  Nation,  God  in  you,  God  in 
me,  once  thought  in  and  thought  out,  and  the  one  who  takes  in  such  a 
thought  is  never  the  same  again.  The  meaning  of  your  coming  to  us  is 
the  fact  that  you  bring  to  us  a  religious  world  thought ;  you  mark  a  great 
epoch  in  our  religious  expansion.  But  more  than  this  you  bring  us  a 
great  world  interest.  Your  countries  will  never  be  to  us  meaningless 
names  in  our  geographies,  mere  little  fragments  in  the  map  of  the  world. 
We  know  that  under  these  names,  under  these  flags  there  dwell  women. 
Baptist  women,  whose  hearts  beat  in  unison  with  ours.  We  will  never 
forget  you.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  welcome  back  to  our  midst  our 
missionaries  who  have  come  to  us  from  India  and  Japan  and  China,  but 
most  of  them  are  our  own  women,  Western  women,  who  have  been  la- 
boring in  Eastern  lands,  and  wliile  we  do  so,  it  is  but  to  follow  the  Chi- 
nese custom  and  shake  hands  with  ourselves;  but  it  is  you  women  from 
the  other  countries,  England,  France,  Bulgaria,  Russia,  whom  we  need 
particularly   to   realize.     In  these  great   organizations   that   have   been 


182  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

enumerated  we  have  been  very  busy  sending  the  simple  message  of  truth 
as  Baptists  hold  it  to  heathen  lands  and  to  the  Latin  American  lands  in 
our  own  continent,  and  to  those  in  South  America.  But  I  confess  to 
you,  women  from  Europe,  and  you  our  strong  sisters  from  Canada,  and 
you  from  the  new  country  to  the  far  South,  that  we  have  not  realized 
you.  Perhaps  you  have  not  realized  us,  but  I  confess  only  for  my 
country-women. 

You  have  brought  us  also  a  realization  of  what  this  Baptist  faith  of 
ours  means  and  the  mission  it  may  have  to  countries  of  much  older  civ- 
ilization than  ours.  You  have  not  been  very  long  in  America;  yon  can- 
not be  very  long  in  America  until  you  hear  the  boast  that  Roger  Wil- 
liams once  founded  a  colony  and  taught  the  embryonic  nation  religious 
liberty,  that  Thomas  Jefferson  embodied  into  our  Constitution  the  ideal 
democracy  as  he  found  it  embodied  in  a  Baptist  church.  Indeed,  we 
Baptist  women  have  been  inclined  to  think  that  if  not  native  to  this  cli- 
mate, Baptist  truth,  like  cotton,  has  found  its  real  home  by  transplant- 
ing. But  you  bring  to  us  a  realization  that  under  these  principles  that 
we  have  largely  taken  for  granted  there  is  a  mission  and  a  message  for 
every  land,  lands  into  whose  life  has  been  given  the  condition  of  Church 
and  State,  whose  stately  towers  overshadow  all  other  religions  that 
would  spring  up  among  them.  As  I  have  thought  of  you  as  you  were 
coming,  as  I  have  thought  that  we,  by  natural  though  full  consent,  have 
in  being  Baptists  followed  the  line  of  least  resistance,  I  have  asked  my- 
self why  it  is  that  you  follow  the  difficult  line  of  the  greatest  resistance. 
What  was  there  in  our  form  of  beliefs  that  made  you  take  the  hard 
way?  Women  love  praise;  women  love  to  be  approved,  and  yet  you, 
loving  your  lands,  loving  the  heroes  of  that  land,  willing  when  you  re- 
turn from  exile  to  stoop  and  kiss  the  soil  that  gave  you  birth,  what  was 
there  in  this  faith  of  ours  that  made  you  willing  to  renounce  friends,  to 
come  out  from  the  stately  edifice,  to  deny  yourself  the  sweet  strains  of 
beautiful  music,  and  to  stand  on  the  firing  line,  what  made  you,  knowing 
well  the  cost  to  yourself,  and  far  more  painful  to  your  children,  what 
made  you  Baptists?  I  see  through  your  eyes  dimly,  I  cannot  see  it  all, 
but  I  see  dimly  that  here  was  a  principle  that  you  thought  worthy  to 
live  for, — we  claim  to  do  that — and  if  need  be  to  die  for. 

We  have  worn  this  Baptist  faith  like  a  jewel  on  our  hands,  so  a  part 
of  ourselves  that  we  no  longer  think  of  its  great  value,  and  are  astonish- 
ed when  someone  praises  its  beauty  or  its  rarity,  but  you  have  been  will- 
ing to  suffer  for  it.  Then  I  think  of  the  wonderful  value  of  this  faith 
of  ours  as  you  have  portrayed  it  to  us,  the  wonderful  value  to  the  indi- 
vidual. What  makes  you  so  grave  sisters,  what  was  it  that  your  souls 
sickened  for,  what  was  it  for  which  you  sought  and  sought  and  still  with 
heart-sickness  sought  until  you  found  it?  Oh,  as  you  have  been  coming 
to  us  I  have  been  thinking  of  you,  I  have  seen  a  new  vision  of  what  this 
simple  faith  of  ours  meant  to  women,  by  all  you  have  suffered,  by  every 
social  slight,  by  every  jeer,  by  every  strife,  by  every  imprisonment.  We 
are  your  daughters  in   the  faith;  you  have  re-introduced  into  Baptist 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  l'ROCEEDl\a>'^.  183 

womanhood  the  heroic  strain,  and  I  thank  you.  I  need  not  say  after 
this  that  we  long  for  your  I'eUowship;  I  do  not  say,  Will  you  come  to  us 
because  we  are  so  numerous,  but  1  say  to  you,  Strong  sisters,  sisters 
who  have  endured,  will  you  take  our  hands  made  soft  by  churchly  ease, 
by  approval  and  consent,  will  you  take  our  hands,  numerous  but  weak, 
into  your  hands  made  strong  and  steady  by  building  foundations  where 
ease  was  denied.  Strong  sisters  but  few,  will  you  welcome  us  into  your 
fellowship  ?  Wiill  you  take  us,  four  million  of  us,  into  your  abiding  love  ? 
We  need  to  grow  strong;  teach  us,  will  you  not,  how  to  labor  and  to 
wait  and  to  be  patient,  enriching  us  by  your  strength.  Enrich  us  in 
love,  in  faith,  in  hope,  in  self-sacrifice,  if  need  be.  Though  I  have  no 
authority  to  speak  for  these  great  organizations,  yet  I  do  feel  that  I 
speak  for  them  this  afternoon  when  I  ask  you.  Shall  we  not  out  of  this 
gathering  this  afternoon,  this  gathering  of  women  representing  the  Bap- 
tist women  of  the  world,  plan  together  for  the  creation  of  a  simple 
nerve-centre,  a  nerve-centre  along  which  we  will  feel  thrilling  your 
trials  or  triumphs,  and  you  may  gain,  if  we  have  it  to  give,  an  impulse 
to  greater  things  from  our  example?  Will  you  not  think  of  us?  Shall 
we  not  know  each  other  better  in  the  long  years  that  are  to  come? 

And  this  brings  me  to  my  final  message,  a  message  of  abiding  love. 
This  meeting  will  mean  little  if  we  adjourn  and  disintegrate  and  that 
is  all.  But  if  we  so  keep  in  touch  with  one  another  by  our  love  and  our 
sympathy,  that  Baptist  women  will  in  some  sense,  in  the  great  necessary 
sense,  be  a  unit  around  the  world,  this  meeting  will  have  meant  much. 
I  tnist  we  will  not  part  in  any  real  sense,  and  by  and  by  when  your 
steamers  shall  sail  away  that  you  may  feel  not  the  anchor  drag'  but 
the  anchor  hold,  the  anchor  sent  down  by  all  Baptist  women  in  your 
great  common  cause  of  love.  And  now  with  the  consent  of  our  presid- 
ing officer  I  would  ask  the  three  thousand  women  here  this  afternoon, 
representing  the  four  million  Baptist  women  of  America,  if  they  will 
stand  and  join  in  a  message  that  we  desire  to  send  to  the  women  around 
the  world.  (Women  stand.)  Take  this  message  then,  you  women  of 
foreign  lands,  to  your  women  at  home  from  the  Baptist  women  of  Amer- 
ica. We  send  you  our  abiding  love.  We  are  one,  one  in  God,  one  in 
Christ,  one  in  Faith,  one  in  Doctrine,  and  one  forever  in  Love  to  one  an- 
other.    (Applause.) 

Presiding  Officer:  In  everything  that  has  been  said  this  afternoon 
there  has  rung  out  three  notes,  one  of  joy,  one  of  thanksgiving,  and  one 
of  courage;  joy  for  the  privilege  of  service;  thanksgiving  for  what  has 
been  accomplished,  and  courage  for  the  future.  What  shall  the  future 
be?    Miss  MacLaurin  will  give  us  the  keynote  for  this. 

Miss  Ella  D.  MacLaurin,  Chicago:  At  the  time  of  the  National  W\i- 
men's  Foreign  Mission  Jubilee  that  swept  over  this  country  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  there  were  three  great  fundamental  purposes  in  the  minds  of 
the  leaders.  The  first  one  was  to  give  to  the  women  a  revelation  of  the 
power  of  united  womanhood.     All  divisions  were  lost  sight  of.     The  wo- 


184  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

men  who  were  engaged  in  the  great  work  of  putting  Christ  in  every 
home  in  our  own  loved  country  were  found  on  every  one  of  the  com- 
mittees and  worked  faithfully.  The  second  great  purpose  was  to  enlist 
the  women  who  are  not  to-day  engaged  in  this  beautiful  work.  You 
know  there  are  too  many  of  our  women  like  little  Alice  who  fell  out  of 
bed  one  night  and  when  her  mother  asked  her  how  it  happened  she  said, 
"I  guess  I  went  to  sleep  too  near  the  place  I  got  in."  And  so  too  many 
of  our  women  in  our  churches  go  to  sleep  too  near  the  place  where  they 
get  in,  and  instead  of  making  the  church  a  splendid  enlisting  office  for 
service  they  hear  that  wonderful  message,  ''Come  unto  me  and  rest," 
and  they  rest.  So  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  great  united  movement  to 
awaken  those  who  are  resting. 

The  third  purpose  of  this  movement  was  to  crown  our  King  with  a 
million  dollars  for  what  he  has  done  through  the  women  of  the  West  in 
Eastern  lands;  and  I  am  glad  to  announce  that  already  about  nine  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  of  that  money  is  pledged.  But  after  the  Jubilee, 
what?  Well,  the  Central  Committee  has  planned  a  larger  and  a  broader 
movement,  a  movement  to  enlist  every  woman  and  girl  in  our  churches 
in  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  so  the  country  is  ttf 
be  divided  into  six  great  territories  with  a  chairman  and  a  commission 
in  each  territory.  The  six  chairmen  with  nine  other  members  are  to  con- 
stitute a  National  Commission.  We  are  to  devote  the  month  of  October 
to  an  every-woman  canvass  in  every  church  of  every  denomination  and 
every  organization.  The  plan  is  for  two  women  to  go  together,  two  of 
the  ablest  women  in  each  auxiliary,  one  representing  the  great  work  in 
this  country  and  the  other  the  great  work  in  non-Christian  lands.  Those 
two  women  are  to  be  armed  with  the  most  attractive  literature  telling 
of  the  great  victories  of  our  glorious  King  in  the  whole  round  world,  and 
with  campaign  buttons,  ''Get  one,"  and  "Got  one."  You  put  the  but- 
ton on  and  wear  it  and  it  reads  "Get  one,"  and  when  you  find  a  new 
member  you  transfer  that  button  to  her  and  you  put  on  another  button 
reading  "Got  one."  We  are  to  work  "Get  one,"  "Got  one"  until  we 
find  eveiy  woman  who  is  not  to-day  enlisted  in  this  splendid  work. 
This  canvass  is  to  occupy  the  entire  month  and  longer,  because  we  are 
going  to  keep  everlastingly  at  it  until  every  woman  and  girl  has  share 
in  crowning  our  Christ.  Every  woman  here  go  home  and  read  your 
magazines,  because  the  September  magazines  will  be  filled  with  the  de- 
tails of  this  campaign.     (Applause.) 

Presiding  Ot'picer  calls  attention  to  the  words  printed  on  the  back  of 
the  program  under  the  title  ' '  Afterwards, ' '  and  proceeds :  As  we  go  to 
our  homes  let  us  take  these  thoughts  and  make  them  our  petition,  that 
from  this  great  meeting  there  may  go  out  a  great  blessing  not  only  to 
the  women  that  are  here  but  to  every  woman  everywhere. 

Led  in  prayer. 

The  session  was  closed  with  the  singing  of  "Ye  Servants  of  God,  Your 
Master  Proclaim." 


Wednesday,  June  21. J    REVORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  185 


SIXTH  SESSION. 

Wednesday  Evening,  June  21,  1911. 

Session  opened  at  7.45,  with  Mr.  Herbert  Mamham,  of  England,  in 
the  chair. 

Hymn,  "Rescue  the  Perishing." 

Prayer  by  Rev.  D.  Men'ick  Walker,  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 

Rev.  A.  Ferre,  of  Sweden,  conducted  devotional  exercises,  reading  the 
Twenty-third  Psalm  and  leading  in  prayer. 

Chairman:  We  have  with  us  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  Secretary  of  the 
American  committee  of  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference.  We  are 
going  to  allow  our  friend  five  minutes  in  which  to  voice  the  greetings  of 
this  Conference  to  this  assemblv. 


GREETINGS. 

By  Rev.  H.  K.  CARROLL,  D.  D., 

Secretary  of  American  Commission  of  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Members  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance: 

I  count  it  an  honor  and  a  pleasure  to  bring  you  gi-eetings  from  the 
American  Executive  Committee  of  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference. 
The  descriptive  words  in  3'our  title  and  ours  indicate  that  our  respective 
denominations  are  world  movements,  and  that  the  cordial  message  of 
fraternal  goodwill,  which  I  bring  from  Methodists  of  all  lands,  is  ad- 
dressed to  Baptists  of  all  lands.  Methodism  traces  its  lineage,  as  you 
know,  back  to  Johin  Wfesley,  whose  aim  was  to  revive  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, not  through  an  unbroken  apostolic  succession,  which  he  pro- 
nounced "a  fable"  which  no  man  did  or  can  prove;  but  through  a  gos- 
pel of  regenerating,  cleansing,  and  sustaining  power.  There  were  Bap- 
tists before  Wesley,  and,  though  Benedict's  claim  that  your  line  comes 
down  direct  from  the  Apostles  may  not  be  your  claim,  it  is  certain  that 
you  have  more  centuries  back  of  you  than  we  have,  and  you  have  a  his- 
tory full  of  inspiration  and  noble  achievements.  As  your  younger 
brother,  we  glory  in  your  successes.  Side  by  side  your  denominational 
family  and  ours  have  worked  in  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  Canada 
and  elsewhere  for  considerably  more  than  a  century  in  a  spirit  of  peace 
and  fraternity,  and  it  is  no  small  thing  to  say  that  each  body  has  been 
able  to  see  the  growing  prosperity  of  the  other  without  pangs  of  jealousy. 
For  we  are  all  human,  and  it  is  human  to  crave  the  best  of  everything 
for  one's  own  denomination. 

The  present  fraternal  quietude  between  the  two  camps  comes,  like 
most  periods  of  peace,  out  of  a  state  of  armed  controversy.  Some  of 
us  can  remember  how  pulpit  thundered  against  pulpit  and  the  air  was 
full  of  flying  missiles  from  the  Greek  dictionaries,  mixed  witli  less  classic 
terms  from  our  American  vocabulary.  The  proper  form  of  baptism  and 
the  proper  subjects  of  baptism  have  been  so  thoroughly  worked  over  in 
discussion,  leaving  each  side  of  the  controversy  so  fully  persuaded,  that 
nothing  more,  I  am  sure,   at   least   in   sermonio  warfare,   is  desired   bv 


186  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

either  side.  If  the  arena  is  still  to  be  occupied,  it  may  be  left  to  clerical 
debaters   and   theological  professors. 

It  has  been  the  glory  of  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  churches  in  this 
country  that  they  were,  from  the  first,  intensely  interested  in  the  com- 
mon people.  They  have  given  the  gospel  to  the  masses,  the  destitute 
masses,  particularly  in  the  period  when  other  denominations  were  lack- 
ing in  ministerial  resources  and  could  not  quickly  adapt  themselves  to 
the  pressing  exigencies.  The  country  was  new,  the  colleges  new  and  few, 
and,  if  we  had  insisted  upon  college-bred  men  for  the  ministry,  the 
masses  would  have  been  left  an  easy  prey  to  widespread  godless  influ- 
ences. Methodists  had  no  choice  but  to  make  the  class  meeting  and 
prayer  meeting  schools  of  training,  and  to  graduate,  first,  exhorters;  sec- 
ond, local  preachers;  third,  preachers  on  trial,  and  then  full  fledged 
itinerant  ministers,  who  carried  their  library  in  their  saddle-bags  and 
went  everywhere  preaching  a  gospel  of  saving  grace  and  working  power. 

It  is  no  shame  to  either  Baptists  or  Methodists  that  many  whose  coats 
had  never  brushed  the  walls  of  colleges  were  ordained.  They  were  not 
scholars,  but  they  were  not  untrained  men.  If  they  knew  no  Hebrew 
nor  Greek,  they  were  familiar  with  the  English  Bible,  and  it  is  better 
to  be  familiar  with  the  English  Bible  and  be  ignorant  of  Greek  and  He- 
brew than  to  know  much  Greek  and  HebreAv  and  know  little  of  the  Eng- 
lish Bible;  and,  if  they  had  scant  instruction  in  systematic  theology, 
they  were  not  ignorant  of  God's  method  of  dealing  with  repentant  souls, 
and'  of  the  way  humble  believers  are  built  into  faithful  and  fruitful  dis- 
ciples. The  power  of  the  gospel  to  save  sinners  and  to  lift  unprofit- 
able and  miserable  lives  into  splendid  Christian  manhood  and  woman- 
hood has  been  signally  illustrated  in  the  work  of  our  respective  de- 
nominations, and  our  history  abounds  in  striking  Christian  evidences. 

The  Baptist  and  Methodist  churches  are  the  most  Avidely  distributed 
Protestant  denominations  in  the  United  States.  They  are  found  in  more 
countries  than  any  other  evangelical  bodies.  Their  churches  are  every- 
where— in  cities,  in  towns,  in  villages,  and  in  the  smallest  country 
places  as  well.  They  have  the  poor  in  their  constituencies  and  also  the 
rich ;  the  wage-worker  and  the  wage-giver,  the  humble  unlearned  and  the 
highly  educated.  In  short,  these  churches  are  distinctively  American  in 
their  characteristics  and  distinctively  jjopular  in  their  compi-ehensive- 
ness. 

Other  similarities  might  be  mentioned ;  although  I  did  not  intend  to 
draw  a  parallel.  There  is  one  striking  fact  about  them,  differing  widely 
as  they  do  in  polity  and  practical  methods,  and  that  is  their  fidelity  to 
the  great  fundamental  facts  of  the  gospel.  We  might  suppose  that  our 
Methodist  plan  of  conferences,  each  charged  with  certain  ecclesiastical 
power  in  ascending  scale,  would  be  more  effective  in  protecting  the 
purity  of  our  faith  than  the  Baptist  system  of  independency.  But  the 
facts  of  history  would  not  bear  out  such  a  supposition.  Of  all  the  new 
Baptist  branches  that  have  arisen  in  America,  not  one,  so  far  as  I  know, 
was  organized  to  promote  a  departure  from  the  basal  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Methodists  have  about  as  many  denominational  di- 
visions as  Baptists,  and  none  of  them  are  due  to  a  desire  to  inoculate 
Christianity  with  rationalism.  On  the  contrary,  some  of  the  separations 
were  the  outcome  of  a  fear  that  the  main  bodies  were  drifting  a  little 
from  the  old  anchorages.  We  Methodists  used  to  think  of  Regular  Bap- 
tists as  regular,  thorough-going  Calvinists ;  and  a  hundred  years  ago  or 


VVednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROVEEDISOH.  187 

more,  some  of  your  own  people  thought  you  were  too  much  so  and  as- 
serted, as  a  corrective,  the  doctrine  of  free-will — hence  Freewill  Bap- 
tists, General  Baptists,  Separate  Baptists,  etc.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  were  those  who  feared  the  Arniinian  taint  was  unduly  affectiiiij  the 
main  body,  and  the  result  was  the  rise  of  Baptist  bodies  known  as  ''Prim- 
itive," ''Old  School,"  "Hard  Shell,"  etc.  One,  I  remember,  called  itself 
"Old  Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit  Predestinarian  Baptists."  It  remains  to 
this  day,  but  seems  to  be  in  the  vanishing-  stage.  These  Two-Seed  Pre- 
destinarian Baptists  are  so  Calvinistic  that  they  would  exclude  John 
Calvin  himself.  Though  they  are  not  very  numerous,  they  serve  to  give 
infinite  variety  and  curious  interest  to  religious  development  in  this 
land  of  Free  Churches  in  a  Free  State. 

I\Iay  I  say  that,  as  a  student  of  church  historj^,  I  have  often  wondered 
why  Baptists,  with  no  authoritative  creeds,  no  centralized  church  gov- 
ernment, no  ecclesiastical  power  superior  to  that  of  the  individual 
church,  no  general  officers  having  the  oversight  in  discipline — in  short, 
with  no  final  ecclesiastical,  legislative,  and  judicial  machinery  as  a  de- 
nomination to  define  what  is  soi;nd  doctrine,  and  to  compel  those  of  un- 
sound doctrine  to  conform  or  retire — I  say,  1  have  often  wondered  how 
you  have  succeeded  so  well  in  preserving  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
have  had  so  few  heretics  to  trouble  your  counsels.  T  have  thought 
that  it  is  because  you  have  liad  clear-cut  and  definite  convictions  as  to 
religion,  and  that  these  clear-cut,  definite  convictions  are  the  outcome 
of  close  study  of  and  deep  reverence  for  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God 
and  only  sufficient  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  Your  pulpits  have  not 
shunned  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  nor  have  they  failed  to  in- 
doctrinate your  people  in  the  things  which  Chi'istians  ought  to  believe 
and   practice. 

Our  denominations  have  both  been  in  the  fore-front  in  the  missionary 
movement,  home  and  foreign.  This  was  the  natural  result  of  their  in- 
tensity of  belief  and  conviction.  Both  being  thoroughly  evangelistic, 
they  felt  constrained  to  enter  every  open  door  and  give  the  message  wher- 
ever it  is  needed,  to  nominal  Christians,  first,  and  also  to  the  heathen. 
Also,  once  as:ain,  the  two  bodies  have  been  signally  encouraged  in  all 
fields.  There  are  no  stronger  missions  in  the  pagan  Avorld  than  yours 
and  ours,  and  none  have  had  greater  ingatherings.  You  were  in  India 
before  we  had  a  missionary  society,  and  your  India  churches,  won  from 
heathenism,  have  already,  I  understand,  taken  upon  themselves  mis- 
sionai'v  obligation  and  service  in  heathen  Africa.  Our  missionaries 
have  met  yours  in  the  westei'nmost  part  of  China  in  cordial  co-operation, 
and,  with  Christians  of  other  names,  have  laid  the  foundations  for  a 
united  Christian  church  in  that  far-away  province  of  Central  Asia. 

]\rethodists  are  glad  to  see  the  Baptists  spread,  knowing  that  wher- 
ever they  go  they  take  root,  and  where  they  take  root  they  grow  and 
there  they  stay,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  Christ.  "While  we  may 
think  sometimes  you  are  a  little  too  particular  in  some  things,  we  can- 
not forget  that  we  serve  the  same  divine  Lord  and  Master,  are  baptized 
into  the  same  faith,  belonsr  to  the  same  blessed  kingdom,  and  that,  there- 
fore, "we  be  brethren,"  between  whom  there  can  be,  there  must  be,  no 
strife. 

"We  expect  to  hold  the  fourth  decennial  Conference  of  Ecumenical 
Methodism  in  Toronto.  Canada,  in  October  next.  As  a  messenger  to 
brin<r  vou  the  warm  fraternal  greetings  of  our  hosts,  T  beg  to  ask.  in  be- 


188  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

half  of  our  Executive  Committee,  that  you  commission  some  one  to  speak 
for  you  at  our  gathering.  I  can  assure  you  that  his  welcome  will  be 
most  cordial.  Praying  that  your  Conference  may  be  all  that  you  could 
wish  it  to  be,  and  that  the  blessing  of  God  may  be  upon  Baptist  churches, 
Baptist  preachers,  and  Baptist  enterprises,  I  bid  you  Godspeed  and 
goodbye. 

Chaikman  :  I  am  sure  you  would  like  me  to  express  to  Dr.  Carroll  how 
greatly  we  appreciate  this  expression  and  to  assure  him  that  we  will 
fall  in  with  his  suggestion  and  appoint  some  one  to  voice  our  feelings  of 
love  to  their  Congress  in  Toronto  next  October. 

Dr.  Prestridge  moved  that  the  following  telegram  of  greetings  be  sent 
to  the  International  Sunday-school  Convention  now  meeting  in  San  Fran- 
cisco.    The  motion  was  seconded  and  carried. 

"Philadelphia,  June  21,  1911. 
''The  Baptist  World  Alliance,  in  Convention,  with  four  thousand  reg- 
istration, and  representatives  present  from  nearly  all  nations  of  the 
world,  sends  cordial  fraternal  greetings  to  the  Thirteenth  International 
Sunday-school  Convention  in  session  at  San  Francisco,  with  the  hope 
and  prayer  that  Divine  guidance  in  all  matters  may  mark  every  session 
of  the  body.  Read  Ephesians  four,  eleven  to  thirteen,  (American  Re- 
vision.) " 

CHAIRMAN'S  ADDRESS. 
By  HERBERT  MARNHAM,  Esq. 

I  am  voicing  the  thoughts  of  many  delegates  of  this  great  conference 
when  I  say  we  are  thankful  to  our  leaders  for  the  program  they  arranged 
for  our  consideration. 

Surely  they  were  divinely  guided  when  they  determined  to  set  before 
us  one  central  subject,  on  which  we  can  focus  our  attention  throughout 
this  memorable  week. 

' '  The  Christianizing  of  the  World. ' '  Here  we  have  a  theme  of  su- 
preme importance  that  should  stir  us  to  the  depth  of  our  being,  a  theme 
that  should  fire  all  that  is  true  and  noble  within  us,  and  send  us  forth 
to  high  endeavor. 

Victory  always  rests  with  the  attacking  force.  With  the  inscription 
ou  our  banners,  "The  World  for  Christ,"  with  the  word  of  command, 
"Advance,"  ringing  in  our  ears,  and  nerving  every  soldier  in  the  army, 
from  the  most  gifted  leader  to  the  humblest  in  the  ranks,  we  need  not 
fear  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  His  will  be  the  great  and  glorious  victory 
if  we  are  found  thus  faithful.  Is  this  the  spirit  animating  the  army  of 
Christ  to-day? 

There  are  many  standing  at  ease,  some  absent  on  leave  and  they  seem 
in  no  hurry  to  rejoin  the  ranks. 

It  has  been  well  said,  "It  is  not  interest  in  missions  we  want  to-day, 
but  interest  in  the  Gospel.''^  Some  people  do  not  believe  in  missions — 
they  have  no  right  to  believe  in  missions — they  do  not  believe  in  Christ. 

We  did  well  to  start  our  great  series  of  meetings  with  an  axiom — 


Wednesday,  June  21. J    REVOliD  OF  I'liOCEEDINGS.  189 

"The  Sufficiency  of  the  Gospel."  We  proclaim  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world,  "The  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  everyone 
that  believeth."  I  do  not  care  for  a  distinction  between  home  and  for- 
eign missions.  "The  World  for  Christ"  is  our  emblem,  and  though  to- 
night our  thoughts  are  centered  on  the  home  lands,  it  is  not  because  of 
any  circumscribed  outlook,  or  narrow  conception  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  We  shall  see  the  horizon  more  clearly  if  our  eyes  have  first 
rested  on  the  nearer  view. 

We  have  a  solemn  duty  and  deep  responsibility  to  those  who  are  near- 
est about  us.  The  teeming  masses  in  our  cities,  the  lonely  ones  in  our 
villages,  or  on  the  wide  prairie;  how  can  we  help  them,  how  win  them 
for  Him  who  died  to  redeem  them? 

May  our  deliberations  on  these  matters  be  divinely  inspired  to-night. 

Great  is  our  delight  in  meeting  with  one  another  in  this  convention; 
keen  is  our  interest  in  all  we  see  in  this  great  land ;  gladly  we  partake 
of  your  hospitality,  a  hospitality  that  will  ever  dwell  with  us,  a  delight- 
ful memory,  but  there  is  one  higher  purpose  than  these;  we  Baptists 
have  assembled  from  East  and  West,  North  and  South,  because  we  de- 
sire, strive,  and  pray  for,  "The  Christianizing  of  the  World." 

We  need  a  three-fold  vision  of  the  Saviour.  We  would  see  Him  as 
the  sufering  Christ,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  thorn-crowned  and  crucified, 
we  must  see  Him,  the  risen  and  glorified  Lord,  bidding  us  go  forth  to  pro- 
claim a  Gospel  of  redemption;  with  the  eye  of  faith  we  behold  Him  as 
the  conquering  Lord.  Seeing  Him  thus,  we  shall  go  forth  with  Him, 
with  rekindled  hearts,  full  of  love  and  hope,  conquering  and  to  conquer. 

Ghairjian  :  The  first  speaker  I  have  to  call  upon  is  one  known  to  many 
of  us.  He  will  speak  on  the  influence  of  "Foreign  Missions  on  the  Home 
Field."    Professor  J.  H.  Farmer,  of  Toronto,  Canada.     (Applause.) 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  ON  THE  HOME  FIELD. 

By  Professor  J.  H,  FARMER,  B.  A.,  LL.  D., 
Dean  in  Theology,  McMaster  University,  Toronto,  Canada. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Fellow  Baptists  fro^e  Far  and  Near,  and  Friends: 

I.  Foreign  missions  have  contributed  immeasurably  to  the  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  home  lands. 

When,  in  1792,  Carey  set  out  for  India  he  was  poor  and  Britain  was 
poor.  It  took  him  nearly  five  months  to  reach  his  destination.  When 
he  reached  it  no  welcome  awaited  him ;  all  doors  in  the  East  were  closed 
except  one  opened  by  the  Danish,  God  bless  them!  To-day  the  doors 
are  all  open ;  Carey 's  successors  can  get  there  in  three  weeks ;  and  Brit- 
ain's  wealth  has  enormously  increased — fourfold.  Sir  Edward  Speyer 
tells  us,  in  the  last  sixty  years.  What  is  the  ultimate  explanation  of  the 
unparalleled  progress  of  this  period "?  You  will  find  it  in  the  Commission. 
Jesus  does  not  sleep  beneath  the  Syrian  stars.  He  is  risen  and  lo :  he  is 
alive  forevennore.  The  glad  disciples  hailed  him  as  Lord  and  God  and 
he,  unlike  John's  angel  guide,  rebuked  them  not.  He  is  the  Christ  of  the 
Commission.     Its  preface  breathes  the  consciousness  of  deity.     "All  au- 


190  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAyCE. 

thority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth. " '  Whose  hand 
but  God's  could  "svield  such  authority?  The  sequel — ''Lo.  I  am  with  you 
always  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  * '  means  nothing  less  than  this : 
he  who  moves  in  obedience  to  the  Commission  may  count  ou  the  pres- 
ence of  the  living  omnipotent  Christ ;  he  moves  in  the  might  of  God. 

That  promise  was  fulfilled  in  the  apostolic  age.  But  it  was  not  ex- 
hausted. It  has  been  proved  ti"ue  in  these  later  days.  And  in  its  fulfil- 
ment we  find  the  ultimate  explanation  of  the  marvellous  progi'ess  of  the 
last  century.  The  Christ  has  been  with  Carey  and  his  associates  and 
their  successors,  and  has  been  working  with  them.  Lord  of  nature  and 
Master  of  all  her  mysteries.  He  has  touched  her  hidden  springs,  unlock- 
ed her  secrets,  and  opened  up  her  treasures.  Hence,  the  advance  of 
science,  the  progress  of  invention,  the  harnessing  of  steam  and  electric- 
ity, the  conquest  of  land  and  sea  and  the  air  that  his  people  may  have  the 
means  and  facilities  for  sending  and  taking  the  message  of  his  grace 
to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth.  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  the  nations, 
he  has  moved  upon  the  mind  of  monarch,  statesmen  and  peoples,  turning 
their  thoughts  as  the  wind  does  the  waves  of  the  sea.  Hence  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  nations  of  the  m^i-iad-millioned  East,  the  opening  of  their 
barred  doors,  and  their  new  readiness  to  receive  the  thought  and  culture 
of  the  West  that  there  may  be  highways  for  the  messengers  of  the  Cross. 

Is  this  a  mere  figment  of  the  imagination?  Is  it  not  rather  the  reiter- 
ated declaration  of  the  prophets  ?  How  slow  we  still  are  to  believe  them ! 
Isaiah's  statement.  ''If  ye  be  willing  and  obedient  ye  shall  eat  the  good 
of  the  land.''  and  Malachi's  challenge  touching  the  tithes  and  the  out- 
pouring of  blessing,  are  but  samples  of  scores  of  assertions  that  Israel's 
prosperity  was  conditioned  on  righteousness  Does  not  Jesus  himself 
say,  ''Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  and  all  these 
things  will  be  added  unto  you"?  Does  he  not  promise  "a  hundredfold 
now  in  this  time ' '  as  well  as  eternal  life  in  the  world  to  come  ? 

Israel's  history, — as  God  has  written  it  in  the  Bible. — abundantly  at- 
tests the  truth  the  prophets  uttered.  Their  fortunes  rose  and  fell  with 
their  obedience  and  disobedience.  And  their  later  history  proves  it. 
Take  two  maps;  color  the  various  countries,  on  the  one  according  to  the 
amount  of  evangelical  truth  and  missionary  effort  in  each,  and  on  the 
other  according  to  their  freedom,  happiness,  wealth,  and  power,  and  I 
venture  to  say  you  will  have  them  colored  practically  alike. 

Oh  I  that  this  boastful  age  had — 

The  instinct  that  can  tell 
That  God  is  on  the  field,  when  he 
Is  most  invisible! 

Christ  was  on  the  field  in  apostolic  days,  and  signs  and  wonders  multi- 
plied along  the  pathway  of  his  messengers.  He  is  on  the  field  still,  and 
our  modern  wonders  in  science  and  arts  are  the  signs  of  his  presence, 
the  manifestation  of  his  power.  The  snapping  of  Peter's  fetters  and  the 
opening  of  the  gi-eat  iron  gate  at  his  obedient  approach  is  but  an  illus- 
tration of  how  all  through  the  centuries  he  has  been  breaking  the  bonds 
of  our  ignorance,  weakness,  and  oppression  and  opening  our  way  to  light 
and  liberty  and  power.    Nothing  is  moi-e  reasonable.     When  we  seek  the 


Wednesday,  June  21.1    UEVUlil)  OF  I'RiH'EEDINGS.  191- 

fiual  cause  of  creation  we  must  follow  our  Bibles  and  go  back  to  liim 
'Svitliout  wliom  nothing  was  made  that  hath  been  made."  So  when  we 
seek  the  ultimate  explanation  of  the  great  movements  of  history  we  can- 
not stop  short  of  him  to  whom  is  given  all  authority  in  heaven  and  on 
earth. 

Let  us  believe  it  and  recognize  him  in  his  holy  activity  as  the  ultimate 
source  of  our  abounding  prosperity,  and  let  us  be  spurred  to  larger 
effort.  For  if  the  obedience  of  the  few  has  been  so  abumlantly  blessed, 
what  might  we  not  expect  if  all  his  people  were  consecrated  to  tlie  holy 
task  of  evangelizing  all  the  world. 

II.  Foreign  missions  have  brought  manifold  blessings  to  the  home 
churches  and  their  work. 

1.  They  have  harmonized  and  multipUed  them. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  gatherings  the  Baptists  of  Ontario  and 
Quebec  ever  held  was  the  Convention  of  1867,  Avhen  A.  V.  Timpany,  our 
first  foreign  missionary  was  designated.  He  was  a  glowing  soul,  and 
that  night  he  spoke  like  one  inspired;  his  whole  being  aflame.  The  ad- 
dress produced  a  profound  impression  which  expressed  itself  in  a  won- 
derful outbreak  of  cheerful  giving,  and  in  another  way  more  rare  and 
wonderful.  Men  who  had  been  estranged  for  years  fell  on  each  other's 
necks  and  wept,  and  then  publicly  confessed  their  wrong.  It  was  the 
cleansing  of  the  Spirit  of  God  and  it  meant  a  free  Avay  for  his  moving  in 
blessing  among  the  churches  to  their  enlargement  and  strengthening.  How 
marvellously  this  same  reflex  influence  has  been  shown  in  the  multipli- 
cation of  the  missionary  churches  of  the  Southern  States  as  contrasted 
with  the  blight  that  has  fallen  on  the  anti-mission  churches. 

2.  Foreign  Missions  promote  Home  Evangelism  and  Home  Missions. 
All  experience  shows  how  easy  it  is  for  churches  at  home  to  lose  the 

evangelistic  note.  Ours  is  called  a  Christian  land ;  the  people  think  of 
themselves  as  Christian  not  heathen;  the  majority  seem  decently  moral, 
kindly  and  intelligent,  and  it  is  assumed  they  know  the  gospel;  an  essen- 
tially worldly  spirit  and  worldly  conceptions  infect  us  and  we  settle  down 
to  our  daily  tasks  in  an  eai'thly  spirit.  That  spirit  disapproves  religious 
excitement  and  slays  real  concern  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  Thus  mod- 
eratism  gains  sway.  Conscience  is  drugged  Avith  ethics,  a  cool  legalism 
supplants  the  glow  of  faith-justification  and  evangelical  zeal  and  evangel- 
istic aggressiveness  perish.  There  is  not  the  same  danger  in  the  foreign 
field.  The  missionary  is  surrounded  by  the  superstition  and  cinielties,  the 
suffering  and  the  shameless  sin  of  heathenism.  The  contrast  between  that 
and  the  home  land  feeds  faith,  stirs  compassion,  and  incites  to  effort.  He 
cannot  forget  that  he  is  there  on  one  business,  and  common  honesty  de- 
mands that  he  stick  to  it.  The  pilgrim  character  of  life  becomes  real  to 
him.  Separated  from  other  Christians  and  face  to  face  with  the  fort- 
resses of  evil  he  is  driven  to  God  for  fellowship  and  power.  By  tliat 
fellowship  he  is  constrained  to  be  aggressively  evangelistic.  And  as 
fruit  appears  in  transformed  lives,  the  joy  and  satisfaction  make  enthusi- 
astic devotion  easier  still.  This  joyous  and  confident  evangelism  comes 
to  the  help  of  the  home  field.  The  missionaries'  letters  are  full  of  it.  On 
furlough,  they  speak  of  it  in  personal  conversation  and  jniblic  address 
with  tiie  result  that  multitudes  catch  their  spirit,  are  rescued  from  their 
coldness  and   become   aggressive  Christian   workers  and   supporters   not 


192  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

only  of  foreign  missions  but  of  missions  at  home  as  well.  The  most 
persistent  personal  worker  of  my  acquaintance  traces  the  quickening  of 
his  religious  life  to  conversation  with  one  of  our  missionaries. 

One  of  our  leading  Baptist  women  in  Toronto  who  for  years  was  treas- 
urer of  the  Women's  Home  Mission  Society  used  to  rejoice  when  she 
read  in  the  Canadian  Baptist  some  special  appeal  for  Foreign  Missions, 
for  it  was  her  experience  that  such  appeals  helped  the  Home  Mission 
treasury  also.  We  had  a  remarkable  illustration  of  it  at  our  last  Con- 
vention. Two  of  our  leading  laymen  made  a  strong  appeal  for  $25,000 
for  special  work  in  India.  An  outburst  of  joyous  giving,  matching  that 
at  Ingersoll,  was  the  response  and  more  than  the  full  amount  was  pro- 
vided. Then  suggestion  was  made  that  something  should  be  done  to  re- 
move the  $10,000  Home  Mission  deficit.  The  suggestion  was  taken  up  in 
a  storm  of  enthusiasm.  The  deficit  was  met  and  some  thousands  more. 
So  exhilarating  was  the  experience  that  another  thousand  was  given  to 
assist  the  church  at  Campellton,  N.  B.,  whose  building  had  been  destroyed 
in  the  fire  that  swept  that  town  last  year.  Foreign  Missions  always  illus- 
trate the  promise  "Give  and  it  shall  be  given  to  you." 

3.     Foreign  Missions  have  mothered  most  of  our  Baptist  Schools. 

Recall  the  story  of  Adoniram  Judson  and  Luther  Rice  as  they  found 
themselves  in  India  cut  off  from  the  Congregationalists  who  had  sent 
them  forth,  and  confronted  with  the  task  of  enlisting  the  Baptists  of 
America  in  Foreign  Mission  work.  You  remember  their  decision,  that 
Rice  should  return  to  America  and  head  a  crusade  for  the  establishment 
of  Baptist  colleges  in  the  various  States  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  And  Rice  did  so  in  the  firm  conviction  that  thus  he 
was  making  a  most  important  contribution  to  Foreign  Missions.  Judson 
was  just  as  strong  in  that  conviction  as  Rice.  When  home  on  furlough 
he  was  walking  with  a  friend  one  day  past  one  of  these  schools.  Turning 
to  the  friend  he  said:  ''What  do  you  suppose  I  would  do  with  it  if  I  had 
a  million  dollars'?"  ''Oh!  Dr.  Judson,"  said  this  friend,  "I  know  what 
you  would  do  with  it;  you  would  give  every  dollar  to  missions."  "No, 
I  would  not,"  replied  Judson.  "I  would  put  it  into  such  schools  as 
that — for  in  that  way  I  should  do  more  for  missions  than  by  putting  it 
into  missions  directly." 

The  schools  have  abundantly  vindicated  that  view  by  cultivating  the 
missionary  spirit  and  by  the  large  numbers  of  men  and  women  whom 
they  have  won  and  trained  for  the  foreign  field.  But  they  have  accom- 
plished vastly  more  than  that.  They  have  been  Christian  colleges,  as 
distinguished  from  secular  schools  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  theological 
schools  on  the  other.  And  if  I  mistake  not  they  constitute  one  of  the 
main  reasons  why  Baptists  have  multiplied  so  much  more  rapidly  on  this 
Continent  than  in  Great  Britain.  Tens  of  thousands  of  our  best  young 
people  have  been  converted  within  their  walls  and  scores  of  thousands 
have  been  built  up  in  Christian  character  and  purpose.  Who  can  esti- 
mate what  this  has  meant  to  the  national  life,  if  indeed  it  is  true,  as 
an  American  Senator  has  affirmed,  that  every  college  graduate  counts 
for  sixty  in  influence  on  the  counsels  of  the  nation.  Wlio  can  measure 
the  college  contribution  to  the  intelligence  and  efficiency  of  our  home 
churches'?  That  they  have  been  a  powerful  factor  in  Home  Mission 
work  no  one  conversant  with   the  facts  will   deny.     Canadian  Baptist 


Wednesday,  June  21. J    RECORD  OP  PROCEEDINGS.  193 

history  affords  a  strikinji'  iUlustration.  The  late  Alexander  Grant  wheu 
superintendent  of  Home  Missions  in  Ontario,  declared  that  the  proposed 
Arts  College  would  he  but  a  fifth  wheel  to  the  denominational  coach. 
Later  he  became  pastor  of  the  First  church,  Winnipeg,  and  there,  con- 
fronted with  the  problem  of  evangelizing  the  multitudes  who  were 
thronging  into  that  country,  he  became  convinced  of  his  mistake  and 
began  planning  for  a  Baptist  college  in  the  West.  Brandon  and  Okana- 
gan  colleges  are  there  to-day  and  forty  of  their  students  are  preaching 
on  mission  fields  this  summer.  Our  Christian  schools  are  the  very  centre 
of  our  denominational  life.  They  increase  enormously  the  numbers  and 
efficiency  of  our  working  force  and  furnish  capable  and  consecrated  lead- 
ership for  every  department.    Without  them  we  would  be  poor  indeed. 

In  view  of  what  they  have  meant  to  America  we  bid  God-speed  to  the 
proposal  for  a  great  Baptist  university  for  Eastern  Europe.  And  may 
it  be  the  first  of  many  in  the  Old  World!  So  in  ever  larger  measure 
may  our  schools  repay  their  debt  to  missions. 

4.  Foreign  Missions  have  promoted  the  normal  development  of  the 
spiritual  life. 

Life  develops  or  is  dwarfed  according  as  its  native  impulses  are  obeyed 
or  repressed.  The  missionary  impulse  is  native  to  the  Christian  life.  It 
is  seen  in  Jesus  in  that  soul-thirst  that  compelled  him  to  go  through 
Samaria  and  there  found  satisfaction  in  saving  souls.  It  is  seen  in  the 
first  pair  of  disciples  as  wdth  swift  steps  each  hurried  to  tell  his  brother 
of  the  Messiah  he  had  found.  The  impulse  was  so  strong  that  Peter  and 
John  could  not  but  speak  the  things  they  had  seen  and  heard,  though 
threatened  with  bonds  and  death.  So  they  grew  strong,  and  all  down 
the  centuries  obedience  to  that  impulse  has  made  men  great.  What  a 
galaxy  of  noble  men  and  women  adorns  modern  missionary  annals! 
How  uniformly  these  missionaries  go  ''from  strength  to  strength"^  des- 
pite their  isolation  from  the  associations  commonly  regarded  as  indis- 
pensable at  home.  Their  obedience  to  the  heavenly  vision,  even  though  it 
takes  their  bodies  down  the  deep  well  that  Carey  spoke  of,  leads  their 
souls  up  the  sunlit  heavenly  heights.  And  then  they  influence  the  home 
folk.  For  the  rising  sun  first  kindles  the  mountain  peaks,  then  bathes 
the  loAver  slopes  and  all  the  uplands  with  its  splendor  and  finally  fills 
even  the  valleys  with  its  warmth  and  beaut}-,  so  these  missionary  souls, 
as  they  climb  the  steep  ascent  of  heaven,  touch  and  inspire  a  few  elect 
souls  first  and  afterwards  many  who  dwell  on  the  lower  levels  of  the 
King's   country. 

But  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  is  not  all.  Missions  imply 
"senders"  as  well  as  ''sent,"  the  Fullers  as  well  as  the  Careys.  And 
as  Carey  became  great  by  following  the  impulse  abroad,  so  Fuller  rose 
to  greatness  at  home  through  obedience  to  the  same  impulse.  More- 
over, as  the  number  of  missionaries  has  increased  the  number  of  home 
supporters  has  grown  also — and  never  more  rapidly  than  since  the  Lay- 
men's Movement  was  launched.  Thank  God  for  the  multitude  of  women 
who  have  grown  great  in  Circle  Avork.  Thank  God  too,  that  the  men 
also  in  such  large  nnmbers  are  now  experiencing  the  more  normal  devel- 
opment of  life  that  comes  with  surrender  to  Christ's  last  command. 

5.  Missionary  experience  has  brought  confirmation  of  certain  great 
truths  which  needed  fresh  emphasis  in  this  generation. 

Ch-er  against  the  scientific  materialism  which  so  magnified  law  and  the 

13 


194  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

uniformity  of  nature  as  to  dim  the  idea  of  a  personal  God  or  at  least, 
deny  him  freedom  to  answer  prayer,  we  have  been  taught  afresh  that  he 
is  the  living  God,  caring  for  us  and  able  to  help.  Who  can  read  the 
charmed  life  of  Paton  without  believing  that  God  keepeth  watch  above 
his  own?  Who  can  read  the  life  of  Hudson  Taylor  and  not  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  God's  indwelling  and  guidance  are  very  real,  and  that 
he  does  answer  prayer.  Take  this  story  as  another  illustration.  Early 
in  the  last  century  a  young  Englishman  influenced  by  Carey  and  Judson 
resolved  to  be  a  missionary  in  India.  But  his  health  forbade.  He  went 
to  Ireland  instead.  When  children  were  born  to  him  he  dedicated  them 
to  God  for  that  service.  Later  he  came  to  the  United  States  and  finally 
settled  in  Canada.  There  he  became  a  foremost  spirit  in  the  movement 
for  a  Canadian  Foreign  Mission.  His  eldest  children  became  the  wives 
of  our  first  missionaries,  Timpany  and  McLaurin;  one  son,  as  teacher 
and  principal  of  Woodstock  college,  inspired  many  a  student  with  mis- 
sionaiy  interest;  another,  for  nearly  twenty  years,  was  chairman  of  the 
Foreign  Mission  Board,  and  four  grandchildren  are  on  our  mission  staff 
to-day. 

Meantime  Europe  has  passed  through  the  throes  of  revolution ;  thrones 
have  been  overturned,  wars  have  raged  and  drenched  the  land  with 
blood;  even  this  New  World  has  trembled  beneath  the  tramp  of  legions 
and  shaken  with  the  shock  of  battle — yet  despite  all  the  confusions  of  life 
and  all  the  tumults  of  the  peoples  the  prayer  of  John  Bates  was  heard 
and  marvellously  answered. 

Again,  when  commercialism  has  tended  to  curse  us  with  its  selfishness 
and  cynical  distrust  of  others'  goodness  and  to  crush  the  altruistic  and 
heroic  out  of  life,  the  magnificent  unselfishness  and  moral  heroism  of 
Motfat  and  Maekay,  of  Livingstone,  Chalmers  and  others,  have  been  con- 
stantly touching  the  youth  with  a  divine  contagion  and  winning  them  to 
lives  of  heroic  self-sacrifice.  Such  heroes  are  among  us  still.  Six  years 
ago  John  E.  Davies  was  returning  from  India  stricken  with  leprosy.  I 
spent  some  hours  with  him  in  a  London  hospital  at  that  time.  He  told 
me  his  story  and  then  in  full  view  of  all  that  was  before  him — that 
dread  descent  through  years  of  isolation  and  suffering — he  said  with 
choking  voice  and  a  very  passion  of  devotion,  ''If  I  had  it  all  to  go 
over  again,  I  would  take  the  same  course. ' '  He  languishes,  nay  tri- 
umphs, in  Tracadie  to-day,  our  Father  Damien. 

Further,  when  evolutionarv^  thought  has  been  weakening  our  sense  of 
sin  and  guilt,  and  God's  holiness  has  been  degraded  to  easy-going  good 
nature,  when  a  cheap  superficial  at-one-ment,  through  the  rents  of 
which  the  life-blood  has  escaped,  has  been  displacing  Christ's  blood- 
bought  and  hell-deep  atonement,  missionaries  have  rendered  us  inesti- 
mable service  by  telling  us  of  the  nameless  abominations  and  consequent 
manifold  miseries  of  heathenism,  the  awful  sense  of  sin  wrought  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  India,  Corea  and  China  during  the  revival,  the  utter  pow- 
erlessness  of  any  mere  ethic  or  example  and  how  the  gospel  of  God's 
grace  as  revealed  in  the  Cross  of  Chirst  i3roves  itself  to  be  the  power  of 
God  unto  everyone  that  believes. 

These  experiences  have  helped  our  theology.  They  have  reaffirmed 
among  all  nations  the  fundamentals  of  the  evangelical  faith;  this  dog- 
matism on  the  fundamentals  has  proved  itself  to  be  the  true  pragmatism. 
They  have  helped  to  restoi'e  to  us  the  doctrinal  perspective  of  the  New 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDl'SOS.  195 

Testament  wliicli  the  creeds  had  tended  to  distort,  and  by  bringing  for- 
ward Jesus  himself  as  our  chief  apologetic.  They  have  given  truth 
the  warmth  of  personal  relationship  as  contrasted  with  the  coldness  of 
mere  intellectual  propositions.  They  have  thus  been  paving  the  way 
for  that  return  to  the  New  Testament  with  its  essential  unity  and  rich 
variety  which  will  bring  about  the  only  union  which  is  desii-able — a 
union  combining  love  and  loyalty. 

In  many  ways  too,  missions  have  strengthened  faith  in  the  Bible  and 
helped  us  to  understand  it.  Missionaries  find  that  simple  reliance  on 
the  Scriptures  is  warranted  by  its  effectiveness.  The  record  may  be 
trusted.  God's  method  of  dealing  with  nations  as  there  recorded,  is 
found  to  be  still  the  best  method  with  peoples  under  like  conditions — 
suggesting-  that  it  was  a  revelation  progressively  given  by  divine  wisdom 
rather  than  a  series  of  discoveries  by  sagacious  men.  They  are  bringing 
help  at  the  crucial  point  of  criticism — the  reliability  of  Jesus  in  every- 
thing, by  bringing  forward  facts  that  confirm  the  simple  truth  of  what 
he  says  and  so  relieving  us  of  the  necessity  of  predicting  either  ignor- 
ance or  accommodation  on  his  part. 

The  sense  of  brotherhood  has  also  been  greatly  deepened.  As  under 
the  power  of  the  gospel  the  most  degraded  savages  have  risen  to  gentle- 
ness, joyousuess,  and  integrity  of  life,  the  essential  equality  of  all  men 
has  become  more  clear. 

III.  Finally,  Foreign  Missions  are  forcing  the  solution  of  the  great- 
est problems  that  confront  us  at  home. 

Three  colossal  dangers  threaten  Christendom.  There  is  wealth  that 
runs  riot  in  luxury,  flaunts  its  vulgar  display  and  breeds  corruption,  as 
it  did  in  Babylon  and  Rome.  There  is  social  injustice,  perpetuated  by 
selfishness  and  indifference,  which  begets  a  passion  and  strife  that  may 
issue  in  awful  cataclysms  of  disastex-.  And  there  are  the  thousand  mil- 
lions of  the  dark-skinned  East,  now  fast  becoming  conscious  of  their 
power,  for  whom,  if  provoked,  it  would  be  natural  and  possible  first  to 
drive  the  "Westerner  out  and  then  push  Westward  like  a  resistless  tidal 
wave  to  the  desolation  of  Europe  and  perhaps  the  overthrow  of  her  civili- 
zation* 

The  present  Foreign  Mission  appeal  to  evangelize  the  world  in  this  gen- 
eration, if  responded  to,  will  do  more  than  anything  else  to  solve  our 
problems  and  remove  these  dangers.  It  will  consecrate  wealth  to  holy 
ends  and  make  it  a  means  of  grace  instead  of  an  engine  of  destruction. 
We  become  stewards,  not  owners.  And  stewardship,  rightly  understood, 
will  affect  not  simply  the  use  of  wealth  but  also  the  methods  of  its 
acquisition.  That  will  strike  at  the  very  roots  of  social  injustice  and 
remove  it.  And  it  must  be  removed.  We  must  enthrone  the  (iolden  Rule 
in  business  life;  we  must  change  all  laws  that  make  it  easy  for  the  few 
to  appropriate  what  belongs  to  the  many;  we  must  place  justice  before 
charity  and  exemplify  the  brotherhood  the  gospel  proclaims.  The  inter- 
ests of  missions  demand  it.  The  world  is  small  to-day.  The  East  rubs 
shoulders  with  the  West.  Japan  knows  all  about  our  slums  and  will  not 
be  so  likely  to  receive  our  reliuion  unless  we  clean  them  up.  We  must 
remove  that  beam  from  our  own  veye.  The  gospel  has  done  us  untold 
good.  It  has  greatly  purified  individual  and  liome  life.  We  must  let  it 
have  its  perfect  work  by  purifying  all  the  avenues  of  our  commercial 
and  national  life  that  we  may  draw  nearer  th^  purity  and  splendor  of  the 


196  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

New  Jerusalem,  and  make  effective  appeal  to  the  East.  If  we  fail  in  this, 
God  may  allow  these  eastern  millions  to  become  our  scourge  and  bring 
upon  us  the  most  appalling  calamities  the  world  has  ever  known. 

Our  safety  lies  in  carrying  out  the  Commission.  That  will  make  for 
the  transfiguration  of  wealth,  the  abolition  of  injustice  with  its  train  of 
evils,  and  the  winning  of  the  East  to  Christ  and  brotherly  love.  For  the 
Christ  of  all  power  and  authority  will  be  with  us. 

Shall  we  not  here  and  now  bow  before  our  Lord  in  a  new  surrender 
with  the  deep  resolve  to  obey  his  voice,  that  God,  even  our  own  God 
may  bless  us,  and  that  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  may  see  his  salvation. 

Chairman  :  I  am  sure  we  all  thank  Dr.  Farmer  for  that  splendid 
speech.  May  I  not  in  introducing  my  dear  friend,  J.  E.  Roberts,  tell 
some  of  you  that  for  many  years  he  worked  as  the  colleague  of  our  great 
leader.  Dr.  Alexander  MacLaren,  and  is  now  pastor  of  the  church  where 
Dr.  MacLaren  labored  for  many  years.  He  is  a  grand  man  and  I  am  sure 
you  will  give  him  a  great  welcome.     (Applause.) 


THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  CITY. 
By  Rev.  J.  E.  ROBERTS,  A.  B.,  D.  D 

The  general  topic  for  our  discussion,  "The  Christianizing  of  the 
World,"  depicts  the  world  as  the  scene  of  a  stupendous  conflict  between 
the  forces  of  Christ  and  the  forces  of  evil.  The  lines  of  defence  and  of 
attack  are  extended  over  many  sorts  of  country,  including  cities,  rural 
districts  and  frontiers.  Such  extensive  operations  cannot  be  conducted 
on  one  simple  plan  but  call  for  Christian  strategy  of  a  high  order. 

In  no  part  of  this  wide  area  is  the  conflict  hotter  or  more  critical  than 
in  the  cities.  Modern  cities  present  a  perplexing  problem  to  all  inter- 
ested in  human  progress.  Their  development  has  been  abnormally  rapid. 
The  imwieldy  size  of  many  of  them,  and  the  extraordinary  complexity  of 
their  life,  are  well-nigh  the  despair  of  reformers.  Nevertheless  this 
growth  of  cities  is  not  a  challenge  of  the  Divine  purpose.  The  ideal  of 
God's  Word  is  a  holy  city.  Man  began  life  in  a  garden  from  which  he 
was  driven  out  by  his  indiscreet  haste  to  avoid  connubial  misunderstand- 
ings. It  is  possible  that  if  his  wife  had  not  flirted  with  a  serpent  and 
had  restrained  her  fruitarian  propensities,  man  might  have  begun  his  la- 
bor in  the  garden,  not  outside  of  it.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  talk  of  Para- 
dise Regained.  God  has  higher  thoughts  for  man  than  to  remove  the 
flaming  "sword  that  keeps  him  out  of  a  garden.  The  angel  was  guiding 
man  to  the  city.  When  the  seed  of  the  woman  appeared,  He  preached  a 
kingdom ;  the  disciple  whom  He  loved  and  who  saw  deepest  into  His  mind 
sang  of  a  city  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God,  having  the  glory  of 
God.  The  sheen  of  that  city's  glory  shimmers  over  the  closing  page  of 
the  Bible.  It  is  the  glittering  goal  from  which  we  are  never  to  shift  our 
gaze. 

This  fact  should  be  enough  of  itself  to  rouse  Christians  to  the  most 
passionate  efforts  to  evangelize  the  cities.  They  discover  the  lines  along 
which  the  future  is  to  develop.  The  foundations  of  city  life  are  the 
foundations  of  human  progress.     Segregation,  not  isolation;   corporate 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  197 

responsibility  not  individual  license ;  concentration  of  effort,  not  diffusion 
of  force;  contagion  of  sentiment,  not  loneliness  of  experience;  these  are 
some  of  the  civic  principles  that  interpret  the  mind  of  the  Lord.  But 
there  ai"e  at  least  three  other  considerations  calling  urgently  for  the  con- 
centration of  Christian  effort  upon  what  is  the  ultimate  problem  of  the 
Church   of  Christ. 

1.  One  is  that  cities  are  strategic  points  of  immeasurable  value.  No 
invading  army  would  neglect  the  cities.  Advance  beyond  a  city  is  only 
possible  when  its  population  has  surrendered.  The  famous  Christian 
general,  Paul  of  Tarsus,  considered  it  an  axiom  to  capture  the  cities  for 
Jesus  Christ.  He  passed  through  wide  tracts  of  country  until  he  reached 
a  city:  then  he  tarried.  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  Cor- 
inth, and  Rome, — these  were  the  centres  of  his  manifold  activities.  He 
made  each  city  a  sun;  and  from  that  centre  he  constructed  a  solar  sys- 
tem which  the  central  sun  warmed  and  lighted. 

2.  A  second  plea  for  the  evangelization  of  the  cities  is  that  they 
offer  a  wealthy  prize  to  whomsoever  wins  them.  The}'  contain  the 
masses  of  the  people  whom  Jesus  died  to  save.  The  ripest  products  of 
good  and  evil  grow  in  profusion  under  the  forcing  conditions  of  city  life. 
These  give  the  devil  his  chance  just  as  really  as  they  give  God  His 
chance.  In  that  mass  of  men,  purity  and  heroism  can  flourish  like  the 
palm-tree ;  but  also  materialism  can  grow  like  weeds  on  a  midden. 
Mammon  seizes  the  opportunity  for  the  ostentatious  display  of  wealth 
and  for  the  culture  of  profligacy.  The  idle  rich  and  the  idle  poor  find 
their  refuge  in  the  city.  When  young  men  and  young  women  come  from 
the  country,  the  enemy  of  souls  uses  the  hypnotic  suggestion  of  the  city, 
the  contagion  of  its  crowds,  to  lure  them  into  paths  of  sin.  But  there  is 
another  aspect  of  city  life.  Its  seething  multitudes  are  potential  saints. 
Its  contagion  may  be  consecrated.  Its  hypnotic  suggestions  may  become 
divine  allurements.  Its  wealth  may  buy  up  the  opportunity  for  redeem- 
ing work.  Its  shrewdness  may  be  sanctified  to  saving  souls.  A  city  won 
for  Christ  is  a  crowning  mercy. 

3.  The  third  urgent  reason  for  concentrating  attention  upon  the  cities 
is  their  appalling  condition  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Christian  church. 
Without  attempting  now  to  allocate  the  blame,  the  dire  fact  stares  us  in 
the  face  that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  the  cities  of  Eng- 
land are  utterly  indifferent  to  organized  religion.  That  seems  to  be  the 
correct  way  of  stating  a  fact  that  is  sometimes  stated  in  more  sombre 
terms.  The  churches  of  Christ  do  not  interest  great  masses  of  the  people, 
who  pass  them  by.  Sunday  by  Sunday  the  doors  of  places  of  worship 
are  thrown  open;  but  two-thirds  of  the  people  do  not  enter.  Churches 
have  simply  no  attraction  for  them.  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  only 
evangelizing  sections  of  the  cities  of  to-day;  and  even  this  is  on  a  very 
small  scale.  I  submit,  therefore,  that  a  paramount  duty  of  the  churches 
is  thoroughly  to  master  the  facts  of  the  situation,  and  then  to  summon 
all  the  moral,  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  at  their  command  for  an 
attack  upon  what  some  do  not  hesitate  to  call  the  heathenism  of  our 
cities. 

In  the  brief  time  at  my  disposal,  I  suggest  some  of  the  keywords  with 
which  I  think  this  problem  of  the  evangelization  of  the  city  must  be 
solved. 

1.  The  first  word  is  Passion;  a  burning  love  for  God  and  for  man. 
Without  a  baptism  into  that  fiery  spirit,  our  appeals  and  our  methods  in 


198  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

any  sphere  will  become  sounding  brass  and  clanging  cymbals.  Though 
the  church  have  all  gifts  and  all  faith,  but  have  not  love,  it  is  nothing. 
We  must  love  Christ  more.  We  must  love  men  more.  We  must  want  to 
win  them  for  Him.  The  passion  for  souls  must  thaw  our  icy  correctness, 
and  burn  up  our  stiff  conventions,  and  inflame  our  languid  zeal,  and 
purify  us  from  all  unreality. 

''Kindled  in  some  hearts  it  is: 
Oh!  that  all  might  catch  the  flame." 

But  I  come  to  keywords  that  concern  city  life  more  specifically. 

2.  The  next  word  is  Co-operation.  The  evangelization  of  cities  is 
impossible  so  long  as  different  denominations  hold  aloof  from  one  an- 
other and  work  on  independent  lines.  The  divided  state  of  Christendom 
is  one  chief  cause  of  our  lost  influence  over  the  masses.  We  must  close 
our  ranks.  I  would  gladly  use  a  stronger  word  than  co-operation  and 
speak  of  the  Reunion  of  the  churches.  But  the  irreducible  minimum  of 
necessity  is  the  federation  of  the  churches.  Aloofness  is  played  out.  The 
modern  city  will  not  surrender  to  isolated  regiments  but  only  to  a  com- 
pact army.  The  builders  of  the  New  Jerusalem  are  trying  to  erect  the 
city  on  the  false  model  of  the  modern  Jerusalem.  That  city  has  distinct 
quarters — the  Christian  quarter,  the  heathen  quarter,  the  Jewish  quar- 
ter, and  so  on.  Are  we  trying  to  construct  the  Holy  City  with  a  Presby- 
terian quarter  mapped  out  in  very  regular  blocks,  a  Methodist  quarter 
placarded  all  over  with  fiery  calls  to  loyalty;  an  Episcopal  quarter  with 
its  streets  distinguished  by  the  letters  B-I-S-H-O-P;  a  Baptist  quarter 
with  houses  built  on  piles  and  with  pools  for  gardens.  The  net  result 
is  that  the  Holy  City  is  not  getting  built  at  all.  The  fair  vision  still 
hovers  rebukingly  above  our  warring  denominational  ideals ;  but  London 
and  New  York  and  Manchester  and  Chicago  and  Liverpool  and  Boston, 
do  not  shine  with  the  glory  of  God. 

A  church  that  would  find  its  life  must  lose  it.  Absorption  in  the  quest 
for  denominational  success  quenches  the  passion  for  the  kingdom;  but 
a  ehui'ch  that  is  content  to  lose  its  own  denominational  life  in  the  search 
for  the  shining  city  will  discover  its  own  fitness  and  Avill  possess  its  own 
truth.  The  church  of  Christ  will  wake  up  one  fine  morning  to  find  that 
it  has  gained  denominationalism  and  has  lost  the  cities.  Indeed,  we  are 
rousing  ourselves  from  our  slumber  already ;  and  the  morning  is  not  fine 
but  is  sullen  with  the  clouds  of  luibelief,  and  is  wet  with  the  tears  of 
wasted  opportunity.  The  problem  of  city  life  is  too  complex  and  too 
concentrated,  to  yield  to  sectional  treatment.  Is  it  i;nfair  to  suppose 
that  our  Lord  is  still  sitting  over  some  cities  as  He  sat  over  Jerusalem, 
and  is  weeping  over  them?  He  sees  vast  crowds  in  the  cities  alienated 
from  all  the  churches  and  ignorant  of  Himself,  whilst  the  churches  are 
frittering  away  their  energy  in  exclusive  or  even  competitive  efforts.  The 
Good  Shepherd  cannot  be  satisfied  if  multitudes  of  sheep  are  left  without 
any  shepherding  whilst  the  denominational  shepherds  are  lavishing  time 
and  strength  in  mending  the  denominational  sheepfolds. 

Cities  represent  corporate  life.  Li  them,  interests  are  co-ordinated. 
If  cities  are  to  be  evangelized  the  churches  must  cultivate  corporate  life. 
Isolated  from  one  another  they  can  neither  withstand  the  j^ressure  of 
civic  vices,  nor  overcome  the  inertia  of  civic  vastness,  nor  realize  the 
promise  of  civic  virtues.     The  first  keyword  to  the  evangelization  of  the 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDIXGS.  199 

city  is  Co-operation.  All  evangelical  Christians  must  agree  to  face  the 
stupendous  problem  of  bringing  modern  cities  to  the  feet  of  our  one 
Lord. 

3.  The  third  keyword  is  Diagnosis.  Wlien  the  co-operating  churches 
face  the  problem  of  evangelizing  the  city,  the  first  thing  needing  to 
be  done  is  to  discover  its  real  circumstances.  Cities  are  veiled  places. 
They  are  like  the  cities  in  Turner's  pictures  in  a  mist  that  half  reveals 
and  half  conceals  them.  Think  of  their  kaleidoscopic  populations.  The 
ceaseless  movement  of  people  not  only  localizes  certain  characteristics, 
but  also  changes  the  map  socially  and  morally  from  year  to  year.  At 
any  time  a  city  is  like  a  Tartan  plaid.  Little  squares  of  color  mark  the 
variety  of  its  conditions.  Here  is  a  gay  suburb  and  there  a  drab  slum. 
This  is  a  business  quarter  and  that  is  a  residential  district.  Here  is  a 
Jewish  patch,  there  a  German  patch,  in  this  place  an  English  patch — 
and  over  all  a  pervading  Scottish  atmosphere !  Poverty  and  wealth  lie 
cheek  by  jowl.  Velvet  and  rags  rub  shoulders  together.  Crime  and  pur- 
ity dwell  in  adjacent  streets.  But  no  one  can  say  for  how  long  the  map 
is  up  to  date.  The  hand  of  destiny  gives  the  kaleidoscope  one  turn;  and 
all  the  tiny  bits  of  glass  glide  into  fresh  positions,  making  a  new  pat- 
tern of  civic  circumstances  and  needs. 

Diagnosis  has  been  attempted  on  a  small  scale  and  sectionally.  But 
what  is  required  is  a  brainy  diagnosis  on  an  adequate  scale  of  what  the 
evangelization  of  the  city  requires  from  the  churches  of  Jesus  Christ. 

4.  Diagnosis  must  be  followed  by  Adaptation.  It  is  a  subject  for 
much  more  careful  consideration  than  it  receives,  that  our  Lord  adapted 
His  methods  to  the  needs  of  districts.  The  most  probable  explanation  of 
the  differences  between  the  discourses  in  the  Synoptics  and  in  John's  gos- 
pel, is  that  synoptists  describe  chiefly  His  work  among  the  jDeasants  of 
Galilee,  whilst  John  describes  His  conflict  with  the  priests  in  Jerusalem. 
Even  in  the  synoptic  gospels  there  is  the  definite  statement  that  the 
parabolic  form  of  teaching  was  adopted  because  the  earlier  method  of 
preaching  did  not  secure  what  Jesus  desired.  Moreover  it  must  never  be 
forgotten  that  the  Lord  did  not  prescribe  any  constitution  for  His  church, 
or  even  any  methods.  His  gift  to  His  church  was  a  Spirit.  "He  breathed 
on  them  and  said,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Spirit."  Not  constitutions,  but  a 
Spirit ;  not  creeds  but  a  Spirit ;  not  institutions  but  a  Spirit ;  not  meth- 
od but  a  Spirit.  That  divine  Spirit  must  be  free  to  adapt  Himself  to  the 
changing  requirements  and  to  all  the  manifold  activities  of  the  growing 
human  organism. 

Few  things  are  more  pathetic  than  the  futile  attempts  of  some  Chris- 
tian churches  to  keep  in  the  old  paths  long  after  tliese  paths  have  been 
almost  obliterated  by  modem  developments.  It  is  still  a  fondly  cherished 
delusion  in  some  quarters  that  no  new  methods  of  spiritual  surgery  have 
been  discovered  since  the  days  of  Luther  or  Wesley,  and  that  it  is  the 
business  of  the  physicians  of  souls  to  dose  their  patients  with  the  old 
herbs  in  the  old  proportions.  This  is  a  practical  denial  of  the  continued 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  our  midst.  The  church  of  Christ  must  cul- 
tivate adaptability.  It  is  too  viscous — more  literally  too  sticky.  "Be  ye 
wise  as  serpents."  If  "sheep"  signify  simplicity,  and  "doves"  denote 
docility,  "serpents"  suggest  sinuosity.  They  have  marvelous  adapta- 
bility. Churches  must  learn  to  coil  and  to  uncoil  themselves,  to  be  quite 
still  or  to  spring. 

5.  The  next  keyword  is  Specialization.     This  is  the  age  of  the  speci- 


200  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

alist.  He  is  abroad  in  every  department.  If  the  church  is  to  adapt  her- 
self to  her  complex  environment,  she  must  train  specialists  in  service 
and  also  she  must  have  specialized  churches.  It  is  a  complete  mistake 
to  suppose  that  every  church  should  adopt  the  methods  found  successful 
in  any  one  church.  You  might  as  well  ask  humanity  to  clothe  itself  in 
furs  both  in  Greenland  and  in  Mexico,  or  expect  whales  to  give  over 
blowing  in  favor  of  pocket  handkerchiefs.  Different  kinds  of  life  demand 
different  types  of  service.  For  the  evangelization  of  the  city  churches 
should  be  set  apart  to  do  the  special  work  required  by  districts;  not 
churches  that  are  replicas  of  one  another  but  churches  replete  with  re- 
ligious fervor  and  spiritual  common  sense.  Such  specialization  demands 
considerable  courage;  and  what  is  still  harder,  it  requires  the  sacrifice 
of  sentiment.  People  get  to  love  old  buildings.  They  walk  around 
about  their  Jerusalem,  counting  her  palaces,  telling  the  towers  thereof. 
Though  her  palaces  are  vacant  pews  and  her  towers  are  dusty  virtues, 
all  are  precious  in  their  sight.  The  servants  of  the  old  chapel  take  pleas- 
ure in  her  stones.  The  tragic  thing  is  that  they  favor  the  dust  thereof 
more  than  they  favor  efforts  to  save  men.  So  we  have  the  pitiful  spec- 
tacle of  derelict  chapels,  decaying  and  dreary,  where  tiny  congregations 
drone  out,  ' '  We  '11  crowd  thy  gates  with  thankful  songs, ' '  whilst  it  is  the 
public  houses  and  drinking  saloons  that  are  crowded  by  people  who 
never  enter  the  gates  of  the  churches  at  all.  There  can  be  no  sin  in  sur- 
rendering a  building  which  has  finished  its  course :  the  sin  is  in  keeping 
it  at  the  expense  of  lost  souls.  Genuine  merit  resides  in  sacrificing  sen- 
timent on  the  altar  of  efficiency. 

There  is  need  of  Institutional  churches.  In  drab  and  dreary  districts 
where  home  life  is  impossible  and  where  the  allurements  of  pleasure  are 
fascinating  and  fraught  with  danger,  it  is  surely  the  duty  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  to  provide  a  safe  shelter  for  her  own  children,  as  well  as  a 
refuge  for  the  tempted  one  outside.  Moreover,  such  churches  should  be 
put  in  charge  of  a  capable  man  who  is  allowed  a  free  hand.  It  is  fatal 
to  crush  him  with  criticisms  of  his  methods  or  to  crib,  cabin,  and  confine 
him  in  the  findings  of  committees.  The  committees'  findings  should  be 
findings  of  the  cash  to  furnish  this  Institutional  church  generously.  For 
the  leader,  the  suitable  motto  is,  ''Loose  him  and  let  him  go."  But  not 
every  church  should  be  institutional.  There  are  districts  requiring  quite 
a  different  type  of  church.  There  are  celestial  bodies  and  bodies  ter- 
restrial ;  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one  and  the  glory  of  the  terrestrial 
is  another.  There  is  the  glory  of  the  Central  Mission  and  another  glory 
of  the  Institute,  and  another  glory  of  the  suburban  church — for  one 
suburban  church  differeth  from  another  suburban  church  in  glory.  Cast 
iron  methods  are  as  dangerous  as  cast  iron  creeds.  Both  need  to  be 
thrown  into  the  furnace  of  a  flaming  passion  for  souls. 

Now,  let  us  take  stock  of  the  position.  The  evangelical  churches 
have  marked  down  a  city  for  God.     They  believe  that  though  the  city 

''Sits  at  the  feet  of  Christ, 
Unknowing,  blind,  and  unconsoled, 
It  yet  shall  touch  his  garment's  fold, 
And  feel  the  heavenly  Alchemist 
Transmute  its  very  dust  to  gold.'' 

The  churches  agree  to  rise  above  their  differences  to  the  plane  of  eo- 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  201 

operation.  Brainy  men  and  women  are  appointed  to  dias^nose  the  city's 
spiritual  needs;  others  discuss  the  best  methods  of  meeting-  these  needs. 
As  a  result  strategic  points  are  strongly  occupied,  and  the  banner  of 
Immanuel  is  unfurled  on  every  promising  height.  Instead  of  dingy  little 
Mission  Halls  scattered  over  a  crowded  area  like  grains  through  the  de- 
nominational holes  of  an  ecclesiastical  pepper  box,  there  will  be  a  few 
fine  homes  for  the  people,  commodious  and  comfortable.  These  will  be 
adapted  to  every  kind  of  holy  service,  religious  and  recreative,  spiritual 
and  social,  and  will  be  staffed  with  men  and  women  steeped  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  Calvary  and  skilled  in  the  art  of  saving  the  lost.  Where  there 
are  crowds  of  young  people  in  business  houses  or  lodging,  there  will  be  an 
Institutional  church  equipped  amply  with  the  means  for  ministering 
to  their  many-sided  life.  Close  to  the  University  is  a  small  but  beautiful 
church,  with  a  minister  who  has  learned  to  love  the  Lord  Avith  all  his 
mind,  capable  of  guiding  seekers  for  Truth  to  Him  who  incarnated  Truth 
and  Love.  In  the  suburbs  are  several  kinds  of  church,  suited  to  the 
manifold  requirements  of  varied  classes.  These  churches  will  not  be 
planked  down  wherever  a  denomination  thinks  it  ought  to  be  represented, 
even  in  competition,  but  they  will  be  planted  where  there  is  soil  for  their 
growth  and  nourishment  for  their  sustenance. 

The  buildings  will  be  bright  and  attractive,  for  Mount  Zion  is 
beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth.  They  will 
be  built  with  capacity  for  enlargement,  because  faith  may  be  de- 
fined as  sitting  accommodations  for  persons  unseen.  Very  careful 
provision  will  be  made  for  a  graded  Sunday-school;  and  British  archi- 
tects and  Sunday-school  managers  will  be  sent  to  America  on  an  educa- 
tional tour  to  learn  how  child-life  should  be  nurtured  for  the  Saviour. 
The  claims  of  good  music  will  not  be  neglected ;  in  this  matter  American 
choirmasters  and  organists  will  pay  a  return  visit  to  Great  Britain  to 
learn  the  secret  of  congregational  singing.  It  is  probable  that  some  of 
the  church  services  will  contain  considerable  liturgical  elements  whilst 
others  rejoice  in  the  freedom  wherewith  Christ  has  made  His  people  free; 
for  spiritual  tastes  differ  nor  have  all  Christians  obtained  the  same  meas- 
ure of  spiritual  liberty.  But  one  feature  will  be  common  to  all  these 
churches.  They  will  be  pervaded  by  a  homelike  feeling.  Snobbery  will 
be  banished  from  them.  Caste  will  be  asphyxiated  in  their  catholic  at- 
mosphere. The  qualifications  for  office  will  be  stated  in  terms  of  char- 
acter rather  than  of  estate.  There  will  be  a  delightful  blend  of  American 
unrestraint  with  British  reserve :  neither  will  forbidding  stiffness  vex 
the  outsider  nor  will  lighthearted  irreverence  vex  the  worshiper.  They 
will  be  fired  by  the  love  of  Him  who  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
is  lost. 

I  think  there  is  promise  in  this  vision.     Gazing  upon  it, 

"I  feel  the  earth  move  sunward, 
I  join  the  great  march  onward." 

Wliat  work  will  these  churches  attempt  to  do? 

First. — They  will  preach  the  evangel  of  Jesus.  There  is  no  other  name 
given  under  heaven  whereby  men  must  be  saved.  So  they  will  continue 
to  tell  "the  old.  old  story  of  Jesus  and  His  love." 

They  may  not  always  tell  it  in  the  old,  old  way.  In  the  pulpits  of 
these  churches  will  be  men  of  varied  gifts.    All  these  men  will  have  been 


202  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

trained  thoroughly  in  interdenominational  colleges.  Some  of  them  will 
be  expert  in  wooing  the  wayward,  in  luring  prodigals  back  home.  Some 
will  be  skilful  in  dealing  with  the  doubts  of  the  sincere,  or  with  the 
perplexities  of  the  educated.  New  phraseology  will  be  heard  in  these 
pulpits.  There  must  be  adaptation  of  the  message  as  well  as  of  method. 
The  church  should  not  try  to  conform  her  preachers  to  old  creeds.  She 
has  to  state  the  gospel  in  terms  suitable  to  the  modern  mind  and  not 
in  archaic  speech.  The  message  of  the  churches  will  be  the  message  of 
the  cross.  But  it  will  be  the  whole  message  of  the  cross,  the  great  big 
evangel  of  Him  who  was  dead  and  is  alive  again. 

Secondly. — These  churches  will  keep  an  eye  on  all  civic  and  social  prob- 
lems. They  will  be  hospitable  to  the  new  spirit  of  religion,  to  social 
values,  to  the  larger  righteousness  of  the  Kingdom.  The  driving  power 
will  be  the  love  inspired  at  Calvary  and  on  Olivet.  But  it  will  direct 
effort  towards  building  the  shining  streets  and  the  gleaming  walls  of  the 
city  of  God.  They  will  want  to  have  the  people  of  the  city  healthily 
housed,  and  decently  dressed,  and  properly  fed,  and  innocently  amused. 
They  will  rebuke  greedy  luxury,  they  will  fight  against  harassing  pov- 
erty. They  will  be  sworn  foes  of  all  selfishness — whether  that  of  selfish 
landlordism,  or  of  selfish  capitalism,  or  of  selfish  commercialism,  or  of 
selfish  professionalism,  or  of  selfish  trades-unionism.  They  will  labor  to 
build  a  city  whose  competition  is  saturated  with  Christian  gentleness, 
whose  government  is  inspired  by  Christian  passion,  whose 
homes  are  built  upon  Christian  purity:  a  city  with  fi-esh  air, 
and  pure  water,  and  sweet  houses,  and  sunny  streets,  and  broad  spaces, 
and  well-stored  galleries:  a  city  in  which  men's  bodies  shall  be  grown 
healthily,  and  men's  minds  shall  be  educated  worthily,  and  men's  souls 
find  it  easy  to  pray  ''Our  Father  in  heaven." 

How  will  this  be  done?  Probably  not  by  the  churches  taking  a  direct 
part  in  civic  government.  It  is  more  likely  to  be  done  by  churches  train- 
ing men  and  women  to  take  that  part.  The  churches  will  offer  the  city 
its  ideals;  and  then  they  will  supply  the  people  whose  passion  it  is  to 
realize  these  ideals.  The  churches  will  pour  into  the  city  morning  by 
morning  a  stream  of  sanctified  men  and  women.  Trains  and  trams  will 
discharge  daily  a  burden  of  souls  stirred  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Saviour. 
When  candidates  are  required  for  the  managing  bodies  of  the  city,  mem- 
bers of  the  churches  will  offer  themselves  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  their 
fellow-members  will  vote  for  the  best  of  them  for  the  sake  of  the  same 
Name.  So  the  churches  will  endeavor  to  keep  before  men  God's  ideal  of 
a  sanctified  community. 

Thirdly. — Finally,  the  churches  will  continue  to  prove  the  value  of  the 
individual  soul.  Their  devotion  to  good  government  will  not  silence  the 
gospel  of  the  ''whosoever."  Inspired  by  the  Good  Shepherd  who  gave 
His  life  for  the  sheep  and  who  also  goes  out  over  the  dark  mountains 
of  pain  and  mystery  in  search  of  one  lost  sheep,  the  separate  members 
of  the  churches  will  seek  to  save  men  and  women  one  by  one.  The 
evangelization  of  the  city  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  consecration 
of  the  individual  Christian  to  the  Christ-like  task  of  winning  individual 
sinners,  in  loving  obedience  to  Him  who  cried  over  His  city,  "How 
often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children." 

I  said:  "Let  me  walk  in  the  fields." 
He  said:  "No,  walk  in  the  town." 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  203 

I  said:  "There  ai'e  no  flowers  there." 
He  said:  "No  flowers,  but  a  crown." 

I  said:  "But  the  skies  are  black 
There  is  nothing  but  noise  and  din." 

And  He  wept  as  He  sent  me  back : 

"There  is  more,"  said  He,  "there  is  sin." 

I  said:  "But  the  air  is  thick, 

And  fogs  are  veiling  the  sun." 
He  answered :  ' '  Yet  souls  are  sick. 

And  souls  in  the  dark  undone." 

I  said :  "  I  shall  miss  the  light, 

And  friends  will  miss  me.  they  say." 

He  answered:  "Choose  to-night, 
If  I  am  to  miss  you,  or  they!" 

I  pleaded  for  time  to  be  given. 

He  said :  "Is  it  hard  to  decide ? 
It  will  not  seem  hard  in  heaven 

To  have  followed  the  steps  of  your  Guide." 

President  Clifford  announced  the  following  sub-committee  to  deal  with 
questions  relating  to  the  constitution  of  the  Alliance :  Dr.  Crandall,  Rev. 
Mr,  Lehmann,  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  Rev.  C.  E.  Benander,  Dr.  Morris,  Dr. 
Newton  Marshall,  Dr.  Prestridge,  Rev.  Mr.  Shakespeare,  Rev.  Mr.  Whit- 
ley. 

Hymn,  "Jesus  Calls  Us  O'er  the  Tumult." 

Rev.  J.  B.  Gambrell  then  delivered  the  following  address: 


EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  RURAL  DISTRICTS. 

By  J.  B.  GAMBRELL,  D.  D.,  Texas. 

We  have  here  a  great  subject  this  evening,  "Thp  Evangelization  of 
the  Rural  Districts."  Somebody  who  has  looked  into  the  question  tells 
me  that  about  sixty  per  cent  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  yet  live- 
in  the  country,  and  that  the  movement  is  very  rapid  toward  cities.  I 
wish  this  great  audience  could  confer  a  little  favor  on  me  just  at  ttiis 
time.  Will  every  one  here  who  was  raised  in  the  countiy  stand  up. 
(Majority  of  the  audience  rises.)  You  all  look  like  it.  (Laughter.) 
And  that  means  that  you  look  good  to  me.  Out  in  the  country  is  the 
•place  where  people  really  live  a  large  and  free  life  and  wliere  p^^ople 
are  grown,  and  those  little  meetings  that  have  occurred  in  thousands  of 
our  country  places  between  the  father  and  son  behind  the  barn  when  tlie 
trimmings  of  the  orchard  were  properly  applied,  in  many  cases  deter- 
mined whether  that  boy  would  be  a  preacher  or  would  go  to  the  peniten- 


204  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

tiary.  The  country  is  of  tremendous  significance  to  the  world.  God 
made  the  country  and  man  made  the  city,  and  God  did  better  than  min 
did. 

Now,  the  first  word  distinctive  on  the  theme  is  concerning  evangeliza- 
tion. Why  is  it,  fellow-preachers,  fellow-workers,  why  is  it  that  there 
are  churches  without  congregations?  I  will  tell  you.  Before  the  con- 
gregation went  out  of  the  empty  church  the  seeking  nature  of  the  gospel, 
which  is  the  highest,  the  most  persistent,  the  most  important,  the  sweetest 
thing  in  all  the  gospel,  went  out  of  the  ministry  in  that  church.  I  call 
you  to  record  here  to-night  in  this  hour  if  any  of  you  ever  knew  a 
church  where  men  were  called  to  repentance  and  salvation  in  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  Christ  with  all  love  and  tenderness  and  persistently,  and  that 
was  the  key-note  of  the  ministry,  that  people  did  not  come  to  that 
church.  Oh,  I  know  what  is  the  matter  with  churches ;  you  cannot  fiddle 
people  into  church.  I  know  churches  in  my  own  part  of  the  world  where 
the  preacher  was  fine  and  learned,  and  the  singing  was  fine  and  operatic, 
and  the  people  thinned  out,  and  they  said,  "Let  us  get  a  fiddler  too," 
and  they  brought  them  in  and  then  they  did  this  and  they  did  that  and 
the  more  they  did  the  less  the  people  came.  A  great  evangelist  came 
with  a  burning  heart  for  the  salvation  of  lost  men  and  the  church  filled 
up  again. 

I  have  heard  this  splendid  program  laid  out  here  and  I  am  greatly  in-, 
terested  in  it.  I  believe  nearly  all  of  it,  but  I  don't  understand  it,  how 
we  are  going  to  do  everything  that  ought  to  be  done.  But  I  will  draw 
you  a  picture.  In  the  far  southern  country  where  I  was  raised,  a  man 
made  a  mill.  He  built  a  great  wheel,  the  greatest  that  I  ever  saw,  and 
on  that  wheel  he  turned  a  stream  of  water  and  that  wheel  ground  corn 
for  the  country.  The  last  time  I  passed  there  the  wheel  was  all  out  of 
plumb  and  dry,  and  the  mill  was  silent  and  there  was  nothing  doing. 
What  was  the  matter?  Why,  the  stream  had  gone  dry.  The  crawfish 
and  other  things  had  bored  into  the  bank  and  let  all  the  water  out  and 
the  mill  was  no  account.  And  we  better  look  after  things  of  that  sort. 
There  are  many  seducing  spirits  to-day  in  the  world  taking  God's  peo- 
ple away  from  the  work  that  God  has  given  them  to  do.  Christ  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and  I  know  if  the  spirit  of  evan- 
gelization died  out  of  our  churches  that  our  churches  must  die,  and  the 
splendid  programs  that  we  have  laid  out  will  not  be  ever  executed. 

Now,  we  want  a  real  heart-breaking  revival  in  every  church  in  Chris- 
tendom and  we  need  to  be  very  particular  about  it.  I  know  it  will  play 
smash  with  a  lot  of  our  doings  there  but  that  will  not  make  any  differ- 
ence, a  real  heart-breaking  revival  that  will  humble  men,  that  will  bring 
them  to  repentance  for  their  sins,  that  will  make  them  know  that  th^y 
are  sinners  and  make  them  to  call  out  to  God,  even  as  they  did  in  the 
first  age,  that  will  renovate  our  churches  as  the  speaker  told  us  here 
to-night,  and  as  so  beautifully  told  to  us  to-day  in  that  great  sermon. 
Now,  when  we  go  to  the  country  we  have  got  a  fine  field  for  it.  The 
country  people  are  a  simple  people,  a  blessing  on  them.     I  don't  mean 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  205 

that  they  are  silly;  they  are  simple  people;  they  are  plain  people,  they 
are  not  tied  up  with  everything  that  webs  people  up  in  a  city  and  we 
cannot  help  it.  I  confess  with  a  great  sorrow  that  I  live  in  a  city  and  I 
cannot  help  it.  There  is  liberty  out  in  the  country  and  the  people  out 
there  will  hear  your  message.  They  go  to  church  and  you  can  preach  the 
plain  preaching  of  the  gospel.  John  the  Baptist  commenced  out  there — 
a  great  old  country  preacher.  I  have  high  respect  for  him  even  to-day. 
I  don't  know  that  he  knew  so  much,  but  one  tiling  certain  that  he  did 
not  know  a  great  deal  that  was  not  so,  John  the  Baptist  came  preaching 
a  definite  message,  he  was  a  great  preacher,  a  country  preacher,  and  a 
Baptist  preacher. 

And,  my  fellow-Baptists,  there  is  no  harm  in  being  a  Baptist  if  you 
are  a  Baptist  right.  A  Baptist  has  a  simple  message;  a  man  does  not 
have  to  have  much  sense  to  be  a  Baptist;  all  he  has  to  know  is  what  is 
in  the  New  Testament ;  he  does  not  have  to  know  about  Greek  and  Latin 
and  a  whole  lot  of  other  heathen  languages.  It  is  great  times  when  a 
Baptist  preacher  gets  loose  in  the  country.  All  he  needs  is  to  know 
how  to  read  and  understand  good  English,  and  the  Bible  is  good  English ; 
it  is  simple  English ;  just  give  one  of  those  colored  brethren  over  there  a 
five-cent  Testament  and  turn  him  loose.  The  country  people  can  under- 
stand the  Bible,  the  plain,  simple  Bible ;  it  is  around  these  great  seats  of 
learning  that  people  cannot  understand  it.  All  the  great  questions  of 
misunderstanding  about  the  Bible  originated  up  there,  and  not  among 
the  common  people  out  in  the  country.  They  can  understand  about  re- 
pentance, and  practise  it  too,  and  they  can  understand  about  faith  and 
belief,  and  they  know  about  baptism,  and  they  know  where  the  rivers 
are  in  the  country.  Oh,  we  don't  have  to  be  such  fine  philosophers;  we 
have  to  be  good  Christians.  Our  business  is  to  preach  the  plain,  simple 
message  of  the  word  of  God. 

The  program  is  already  made ;  Christ  saved  us  a  lot  of  trouble  in 
thinking,  by  doing  the  thinking  for  us  and  telling  us  just  what  to  do;  it 
is  repent,  believe,  baptize,  teach  them  all  things  commanded,  and  right  on 
and  on,  and  it  is  a  simple  program,  and  any  man  that  has  good  sense 
can  preach  out  in  the  country. 

The  country  is  a  great  place  for  evangelization;  there  are  great  meet- 
ings out  there.  People  have  not  got  the  circus  out  there.  One  reason 
they  go  to  church  so  well  in  the  country  is  because  tiiey  have  no  other 
place  to  go  to,  and  it  is  a  blessed  thing  they  have  not  the  tlieatre  there 
and  they  have  not  the  circus  there,  and  they  have  not  the  bar-room  there, 
and  the  gambling  hell;  they  have  not  a  hundred  things  that  they  have 
in  the  city.  They  are  immune  out  there;  they  go  to  church  and  go  to 
hear. 

Brother  preacher,  if  you  live  in  the  city  you  go  to  the  country  and 
evangelize  for  your  vacation.  It  will  do  you  good  to  get  out  of  many 
an  ice  box.  where  you  made  the  ice  yourself.  Get  out  among  the  warm- 
hearted, simple  people.  Put  on  your  short  tail  coat  and  go  to  the  coun- 
try and  evangelize  and  they  will  licli)  you,  provided  you  preach.     They 


206  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

will  not  have  any  ceremonial  served  on  ice.  Don't  go  out  to  preach  your 
doubts;  that  is  too  big  a  question  for  some  of  us.  Don't  go  out  there 
and  preach  what  you  don't  know;  you  would  never  get  through  with  it. 
Go  out  there  and  preach  a  certain  message,  a  definite  message,  a  message 
that  is  made  certain  by  the  word  of  God,  and  men  are  going  to  hear  you; 
it  will  do  you  good;  you  will  preach  better  when  you  come  back.  I  have 
tried  it.  What  if  we  do  evangelize?  Why,  great  things  will  occur.  Out 
in  the  country,  in  the  great  forests,  or  on  the  prairie,  out  in  the  moun- 
tains, in  the  neighborhood  of  the  little  church  the  boys  are  growing  up; 
they  are  driving  their  mother's  calves  in  this  evening;  they  are  holding 
the  calves  off  while  their  mothers  are  milking  the  cows.  Twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  from  to-day  they  will  be  in  a  great  assembly  like  this.  They 
will  be  the  great  men  that  control  the  world.  A  little  while  ago  one  of 
the  greatest  financiers  of  the  world  died.  I  refer  to  Mr.  Harriman. 
Nearly  fifty  years  ago  there  was  born  in  Texas,  in  the  dense  forests  of 
Texas,  a  little  boy,  and  that  boy  took  Mr.  Harriman 's  place.  I  am  sorry 
he  is  not  a  Baptist ;  his  wife  is.  There  ought  to  have  been  a  protracted 
meeting  in  his  country  at  the  right  time  and  he  would  have  been  a 
Baptist. 

The  great  preachers  are  coming  out  of  the  country.  You  all  came  out 
of  the  country,  nearly  all  of  you.  The  great  statesmen  are  coming  out  of 
the  country,  and  the  people  are  moving  out  of  the  country  in  great 
streams  into  the  cities  and  they  ai'e  reinforcements  for  the  city  churches 
if  they  are  properly  taught,  as  well  as  evangelized  in  the  country  place. 
We  are  to  save  the  cities  largely  by  saving  the  country.  When  the  poli- 
ticians get  divided  in  the  city  and  they  cannot  fight  it  out  and  settle  it 
there,  they  all  go  to  the  country.  They  want  to  get  the  country  people 
on  this  side  and  on  that  side. 

We  are  going  to  have  a  Prohibition  election  in  Texas  next  month  to 
make  the  whole  State  dry.  I  am  going  back  to  Texas  to  call  on  the 
country  people  to  come  and  deliver  our  cities  which  are  the  seats  of  Satan 
to-day,  and  they  are  coming.  The  country  people  that  are  evangelized 
and  taught  are  the  great  resources  for  all  the  moral  and  spiritual  warfare 
of  the  coming  time.  Oh,  it  is  a  fine  thing  to  go  into  the  country  and 
evangelize ;  it  is  so  unconventional ;  a  man  can  breathe,  a  man  can  talk, 
a  man  can  sing,  a  woman  can  shout.  Please  God  I  have  heard  them  all 
over  Texas. 

Let  me  picture  you  a  scene  out  in  the  country.  We  are  holding  a 
meeting  and  the  people  have  come  from  far  and  near  to  the  meeting;  it 
is  a  Camp  Meeting.  The  preacher  is  making  his  mighty  appeal  to  the 
men  who  are  lost  in  that  country.  A  man  gets  up  yonder  and  lifts  his 
hands  and  says,  ''Parson,  do  you  mean  what  you  say?"  And  he  starts 
down  towards  the  platform.  The  preacher  says,  "I  mean  what  I  say." 
He  comes  down  closer  and  closer  saying.  ''Do  you  mean  what  you  say? 
You  said  the  worst  sinner  in  the  world  can  be  saved,  Do  you  mean 
that?"  And  the  preacher  said,  "Yes."  And  that  preacher  was  our 
Brother  Truett  who  goes  to  the  country  every  year  to  preach.    He  said. 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  RROVEEDIAGS.  207 

"Yes,  I  mean  that."  "But,"  he  said,  as  he  stood  here  with  his  hands 
up,  "you  don't  know  me.  I  am  the  worst  drunkard  in  all  this  country; 
I  am  just  out  of  delirium  tremens  now.  \Yi\\  God  save  raef"  And  there 
the  poor  fellow  stood,  trembling.  "Is  there  any  salvation  for  me?" 
And  the  preacher  talked  to  him  and  quoted  the  Scripture  and  after  a 
while  the  man  said,  "Do  you  mean  now,  if  I  come  under  Jesus  Christ 
that  he  will  save  me?"  And  the  preacher  said,  "He  will  save  you  right 
now,"  and  then  the  man's  hands  fell  and  he  said,  "I  come  under";  and 
in  a  minute  he  was  testifying  like  a  i^rophet,  and  all  the  people  around 
gathered  and  listened  to  his  testimony,  and  his  friends  said  to  him,  "Is  it 
so.  Oh,  is  it  so?"  And  before  the  meeting  was  over  everyone  of  them, 
thirty  odd,  had  come  under  Jesus  Christ ;  we  baptized  the  last  of  them  at 
twelve  o'clock  at  night  and  they  went  away  with  their  new  hope  and 
their  new  faith.  If  we  save  the  country  we  will  save  the  cities  in  a 
large  measure,  and  it  is  worth  our  highest  and  best  effort  to  save  the 
country  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     (Applause.) 


EVANGELIZATION  AND  THE  FRONTIER. 

By  BRUCE  KINNEY,  D.D.,  Superintendent  of  Missions  and  Secretary 

of   the   Southwestern   District   for   the   American   Baptist 

Home  Mission  Society. 

Topeka,  Kansas. 

"We  shall  consider  the  frontier  as  an  unsettled  portion  of  country. 
The  American  frontier  has  ever  been  a  variable  and  vanishing  quantity. 
Our  frontier  of  yesterday  is  the  prosperous  and  populous  common- 
wealth of  to-day.  Witness  Oklahoma  which  was  opened  to  white  settle- 
ment only  twenty-two  years  ago  in  the  historic  "rush"  of  1889  and  now 
has  stable  institutions  of  all  kinds  and  according  to  the  Census  of  1910 
a  population  of  1,657,000.  Among  these  happy  people  there  are  more 
than  1,200  Baptist  churches  having  a  total  membership  of  over  100,- 
000  when  we  include  all  kinds,  whites,  Negroes,  and  Indians.  The 
metropolis  of  this  State  has  a  population  of  more  than  61,000,  or  more 
than  3,000  people  for  every  year  of  its  history  since  the  first  stick  of 
timber  was  laid  on  the  raw  prairie. 

I  desire  now,  first  of  all,  to  call  your  attention  to 

The  Imperial  Importance  of  Our  Frontier 

to  our  own  country.  Our  Western  frontier  has  never  been  appreciated 
by  the  East.  The  Westerner  knows  the  East  far  better  than  the  Eastern 
man  knows  the  West.  This  is  but  natural  for  the  adult  frontiersman 
was  raised  somewhere  in  the  East.  The  financial,  commercial,  indus- 
trial, educational,  political,  and  religious  centers  have  always  been  in 
the  East.  The  Western  man  of  affairs  must  go  East  to  keep  in  touch 
with  the  trend  of  events  which  vitally  concern  him.  The  Eastern  man, 
having  all  these  things  at  his  own  door,  vegetates  by  his  own  fireside 
and  sees  no  necessity  of  interesting  himself  in  the  affairs  of  the  West. 
To  support  these  statements  we  need  but  recall  some 


208  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Historic  Misconceptions 

of  Western  conditions.  Many  years  ago  a  certain  Congressman  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  purpose  of  setting  aside  a  tract  of  land  constituting 
about  what  is  now  the  State  of  Iowa  as  a  perniianent  Indian  reserva- 
tion on  the  ground  that  ''No  civilized  w^hite  man  would  ever  want  to 
live  as  far  west  as  that."  The  great  Webster  once  said:  "The  North- 
west Territory  is  fit  only  for  the  habitation  of  wild  beasts  and  still 
wilder  men.  For  my  part  I  will  never  vote  one  dollar  to  develop  or 
defend  it."  Washington  Ii-ving,  after  his  visit  in  1835  to  what  is  now 
Oklahoma,  wrote :  ' '  The  great  plains  of  the  West  will  one  day  be  inhab- 
ited by  a  hybrid  race,  the  descendants  of  the  aborigines  of  the  country 
and  fugitives  from  justice  from  Eastern  States." 

Iowa  now  has  a  population  of  two  and  one  quarter  millions,  Okla- 
homa we  have  already  mentioned  and  out  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
there  have  been  carved  three  States  with  a  combined  population  of 
more  than  two  millions  of  the  most  enthusiastic  people  on  earth.  These 
three  States  had  an  average  increase  in  population  during  the  last 
decade  of  more  than  ninety-four  per  cent. 

Oh,  that  I  might  show  the  immortals,  Webster  and  Irving,  these  thriv- 
ing empires  that  are  now  building  upon  those  worthless  deserts  of  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century! 

It  is  hard  for  an  Eastern  American,  to  say  nothing  about  our  friends 
from  across  the  waters,  to  realize  that  Omaha  is  nearer  to  Philadelphia 
than  it  is  to  San  Francisco  by  more  than  300  miles  and  that  it  is  farther 
from  Omaha  to  Portland,  Oregon,  than  it  is  from  Omaha  to  Portland, 
Maine. 

In  order  that  we  may  be  specific  as  to  just  what  region  we  are  con- 
sidering we  shall  confine  ourselves  mainly  to  the  eleven  States  from  the 

Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Of  course  there  are  sections  of  States  this  side  of  there  as  thinly  set- 
tled but  no  State  as  a  whole.  This  frontier  has  an  area  of  1,186,000 
square  miles,  or  five  times  that  of  the  Empire  of  Austro-Hungary.  It 
now  has  a  population  of  a  little  less  than  7,000,000,  or  5.7  persons  to  the 
square  mile,  while  the  average  to  the  United  States  is  five  times  that 
(25.5).  Europe,  including  European  Russia,  has  107  to  the  square  mile, 
the  German  Empire  291  and  Great  Britain  over  347.  This  frontier  is 
easily  capable,  according  to  the  best  experts,  of  supporting  a  population 
twenty  times  as  great  as  it  noAv  has  when  its  already  known  but  almost 
untouched  natural  resources  are  developed. 

The  Census  of  1910 

is  too  recent  to  need  more  than  mention.  Three  of  the  States  on  this 
frontier  had  an  average  increase  in  population  in  the  last  ten  years  of 
more  than  105  per  cent  (Washington,  Idaho,  and  Nevada).  The  smallest 
increase  of  the  other  States  of  this  region  was  34  per  cent.,  while  the 
average  for  the  eight  other  States  was  56  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand, 
not  a  State  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  had  an  increase  anywhere  near 
this  average  and  only  five  of  them  had  an  increase  exceeding  25  per 
cent. 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  209 

The  Type  op  Manhood 

we  find  on  the  frontier  demands  consideration.  The  population  is  more 
largely  composed  of  native-born  American  or  other  desirable  nationalities 
than  is  true  of  any  other  section  of  the  United  States.  More  than  that, 
they  are  of  the  more  virile  classes.  When  an  Eastern  home  or  town  has 
a  larger  crop  of  boys  than  can  be  supported  by  the  home  industries, 
who  is  it  that  ventures  forth?  They  of  the  strong  heart  and  great 
courage  are  the  ones  who  sally  forth  unafraid  to  conquer  the  new  and 
growing  West.  The  farther  afield  they  go  the  more  must  these  charac- 
teristics be  emphasized.  These  men  may  be  short  on  morals  and  religion 
but  they  are  long  on  dynamic  power  and  conquering  will. 

Zangwill  has  called  America  the  melting  pot  of  the  races.  If  that  is 
true,  the  frontier  is  the  melting  pot  of  America.  It  is  there  that  class 
and  false  distinctions  are  obliterated  and  a  man  stands  or  falls  on  his 
own  merits  and  not  because  he  had  a  grandfather  who  was  worthful  or 
worthless. 

This  process  of  amalgamation  is  likened  to  the  process  of  making 
steel.  The  ingredients  are  put  into  a  crucible  and  subjected  to  great 
heat.  Tor  a  time  there  is  considerable  sputtering  and  bubbling  as  the 
materials  are  being  fused  into  one.  At  just  the  right  moment  the  blower 
in  charge  turns  on  a  mighty  blast  of  air  and  the  impurities  are  driven 
off.  Then  again  the  operator  turns  the  white  metal  into  the  molds 
waiting  to  receive  it  and  the  resultant  is  ingots  of  the  finest  quality  of 
tool-making  steel.  It  is  thus  that  the  strongest  products  of  the  States 
and  nations  are  meeting  on  our  frontier.  There  is  some  confusion  anS 
friction  in  this  commingling  of  these  diverse  elements,  but  if  now,  at  this 
psychological  moment,  we  will  provide  adequate  channels  for  the  opera- 
tions of  God's  Spirit  He  will  breathe  over  and  through  this  struggling 
mass  of  humanity  and  the  impurities  and  dross  will  be  burned  out  and 
driven  off.  The  resultant  Avill  be  the  finest  type  of  American  and  Chris- 
tian manhood  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

**The  suns  of  summer  seared  his  skin; 

The  cold  his  blood  congealed ; 
The  forest  giants  blocked  his  way; 

The  stubborn  acres'  yield 
He  wrenched   from  them  by  dint  of  arm. 

And  grim  old  Solitude 
Broke  bread  with  him  within  the  cabin  rude. 

The  gray  rocks  gnarled  his  massive  hands; 
The  north  wind  shook  his  frame ; 

The  wolf  of  hunger  bit  him  oft; 
The  world  forgot  his  name; 

But  mid  the  lurch  and  crash  of  trees, 
Within  the  clearing's  span 

Where  now  the  bursting  Avheat  heads  dip. 
The  fates  turned  out— a  MAN!" 

I  now  want  to  speak  of  the 
Imperative  Demand  for  the  Enlargement  of  Our  Evangelical  Work. 
The  Home  Mission  problems  of  the  West  are  largely  peculiar  to  itself. 
14 


210  THE  BAPTIST  ^VORLD  ALLIANCE. 

The  problems  of  the  East  are  vastly  different.  On  the  frontier  we  have 
the  Indian,  the  Mormon,  the  Spanish-speaking  citizen,  and  our  own 
white  frontiersman. 

It  is  a  standing  disgrace  that  we  have  not  more  adequately  attacked 
the  problem  of  the  evangelization  of  the  Indian  and  the  Mexican.  I 
would  not  have  you  think  that  they  are  equal  in  importance  to  the  King- 
dom to  the  great  unevangelized  nations  across  the  seas;  but  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  they  have  been  in  our  midst  or  on  our  borders,  they 
have  been  comparatively  few  in  numbers  and  ha\-e  always  been  open 
and  receptive  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus  when  properly  and  persistently 
approached.  These  three  facts  make  a  cumulative  indictment  of  inex- 
cusable criminality  that  this  duty  has  not  been  discharged  long  ago. 
The  native  religion  of  the  Indian  is  paganism  pure  and  simple.  It  has 
been  demonstrated  beyond  a  peradventure  that  he  can  be  led  into  useful 
Christian  citizenship.  We  are  debtors  to  the  Indian — not  because  of 
what  he  has  done  for  us  but  because  of  what  Jesus  did  for  us  and 
because  of  what  we  have  done  to  the  Indian.  That  the  Indian  has  been 
grievously  wronged  by  us  there  is  no  chance  to  dispute. 

The  forms  of  Catholicism  which  obtain  among  the  bulk  of  the  Mexicans 
are  scarcely  superior  to  the  paganism  of  the  Indians.  They  do  not  dis- 
tinguish between  the  images  and  the  persons  they  are  supposed  to  rep- 
resent. The  Catholics  have  had  undisturbed  possession  of  these  people 
for  hundreds  of  years,  but  they  are  now  as  degraded  and  ignorant  as  in 
the  beginning. 

The  most  stubborn  of  these  Western  problems  is  Mormonism.  We 
commonly  look  upon  Mormonism  as  a  disgrace  to  Christian  America,  but 
we  have  never,  either  in  the  church  or  in  the  nation,  fully  realized  the 
fearful  menace  that  it  is  to  our  American  and  Christian  institutions. 
They  may  not  be  gaining  rapidly  in  the  number  of  religious  adherents 
but  they  are  gaining  in  political  power  with  startling  rapidity.  There 
has  recently  been  a  revival  of  interest  in  this  subject  if  the  numerous 
magazine  articles  mean  anything.  I  have  carefully  read  them  all,  but 
there  has  not  been  said  a  single  thing  that  was  not  said  in  essence  long 
ago,  by  the  missionaries  in  Utah.  Not  a  warning  has  been  uttered  that 
was  not  sounded  by  us.  The  Mormons  absolutely  dominate  the  political 
life  of  two  of  these  frontier  States  and  successfully  hold  the  balance  of 
power  in  things  vital  to  themselves  in  all  the  others.  It  is  a  noteworthy 
fact  that,  in  the  trial  of  the  notorious  apostolic-Senator  Smoot,  only  one 
Senator  from  all  of  this  region  voted  against  him  and  he  lost  his  seat  at 
the  next  election.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  nowhere  in  the  civilized  world 
is  there  another  body  of  people  exercising  so  large  a  relative  influence 
upon  a  so  much  more  numerous  people,  as  the  Mormons  are  upon  the  po- 
litical and  social  destinies  of  the  American  Republic. 

Then  there  are  our  own  Anglo-Saxon  people  on  the  frontier.  Thev  are 
our  kith  and  kin.  Nay,  more,  they  are  your  kith  and  kin.  These  people 
who  are  tunneling  mountains,  turning  rivers  from  their  sources,  subdu- 
ing the  prairies  and  making  the  desert  blossom  as  the  rose,  are  of  your 
own  flesh  and  blood.  I  imagine  there  are  few  in  this  vast  audience  but 
have  brothers  or  sisters,  near  relatives  or  loved  ones  on  the  frontier  of 
which  I  speak.    It  is  in  behalf  of  their  eternal  welfare  that  I  plead. 

As  is  the  case  abroad,  a  crisis  is  also  on  here.  The  Commissioner  Gen- 
eral of  the  Land  Office  at  Washington  states  that  in  the  year  1909  more 
land  was  opened  for  settlement  in  the  West  than  ever  before  in  any  one 


Wednesday,  June  21.]    L'ECORI)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  211 

year,  or  thau  in  the  nature  of  things  can  ever  be  opened  again  in  any 
year  of  the  future.  This  brings  a  much  larger  task  on  the  frontier  than 
we  have  ever  had  to  face  all  at  once  before.  In  spite  of  this  thousands, 
even  millions,  of  acres  are  being  continually  opened  lor  settlement  by 
private  and  public  enterprise.  Every  acre  is  greedily  seized  by  the  land- 
hungry  men  of  our  nation  as  soon  as  it  is  in  crop-bearing  condition  and 
often  before.  The  moral  and  spiritual  conditions  of  the  people  are  in 
the  Hux.  We  must  control  the  situation  before  they  become  adamant 
and  fashion  them  after  the  pattern  given  in  the  Mount. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  detract  from  the  really 

Magnificent  Work  op  the  Past. 

Tlie  Home  Mission  Boards  have  gone  as  far  and  as  fast  as  their  con- 
stituencies would  allow  them.  Their  representatives  of  the  frontier  fir- 
ing line  have  endured  privations  and  exhibited  a  heroism  that  is  scarcely 
surpassed  even  in  the  annals  of  foreign  missions.  God  only  knows  ''The 
Price  of  the  Prairies"  that  these  men  and  women  of  His  have  paid  out 
of  their  life  and  blood.  The  heart-ache  and  soul  suffering  of  these 
''Heroes  of  the  Cross"  will  never  be  known  save  unto  God  alone. 

Much  has  been  done  but  we  have  only  partially  met  the  need.  At 
times  we  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  overlapping  of  religious 
work  in  the  West.  There  are  perhaps  some  few  isolated  cases  which 
have  arisen  out  of  unavoidable  conditions  that  could  not  have  been  fore- 
seen and  which  are  easily  explicable.  But  even  so  the  overlapping  of 
the  West  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  same  condition  that  exists  so 
much  more  universally  in  the  East  and  that  too,  without  the  same  good 
reasons.  That  organization  which  has  placed  most  emphasis  on  this 
statement  undertook  a  survey  of  religious  conditions  in  a  typical  State  on 
this  frontier.  The  work  was  done  by  their  own  men  sent  from  the  East. 
They  found,  to  their  surprise,  such  a  deplorable  condition  of  "overlook- 
ing" that  they  have  almost  ceased  to  apply  the  word  "overlapping"  to 
tlie  West.  Among  other  things  they  report  that  there  are  133  towns  with 
from  150  to  1,000  people  in  each  in  which  there  is  not  an  evangelical  ser- 
vice of  any  kind  and  100  of  these  toAvns  are  without  any  Roman  Catholic 
service.  In  one  coi;nty  there  are  16,000  people  outside  the  county  seat 
town  with  only  four  churches  for  their  accommodation.  In  another 
county  which  has  forty-four  school  districts  in  operation  there  is  only 
one  religious  organization  in  the  entire  county.  Within  the  last  sixty 
days  our  Board  of  that  State  organized  a  church  of  twenty-four  mem- 
bers in  a  twenty-year-old  railroad  town  where  there  was  neither  church 
nor  Sunday-school. 

In  Utah  there  are  still  over  forty  cities  and  towns  having  500  or  more 
people  in  each  of  which  there  is  no  organized  Christian  effort.  I  have 
mentioned  this  often  before,  but,  God  helping  me,  I  will  continue  to  do 
so  until  the  neglect  is  remedied.  The  facts  are  not  isolated  examples  of 
neglect  but  are  typical  of  what  is  true  all  over  the  frontier.  I  coi;ld 
give  you  scores  of  examples  from  my  own  personal  exjierienee  to  eoi'- 
roborate  this  statement.  Tliere  are  others  present  who  could  abundantly 
confirm  what  lias  been  said.  If  by  some  Titanic  power  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  could  be  wrested  from  its  ancient  moorings,  there  are 
regions  in   the  West  Avhere  it  could  be  put  down  ngain  with  nil  of  its 


212  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

crushing  weight  and  never  touch  a  meeting  house  or  harm  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel. 

There  are  thousands  of  young  men  and  women  all  over  this  frontier 
who  are  growing  up  to  the  maturity  of  manhood  and  womanhood  who 
have  never  had  an  opportunity  to  come  in  contact  with  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  any  form. 

Eveiy  now  and  then  some  one  asks  if  we  are  not 

Doing  too  Much 

for  the  frontier.  Will  we  not  pauperize  them?  In  some  limited  number 
of  cases  this  may  be  so  but  the  contrary  is  generally  true.  The  same 
questions  have  been  asked  of  every  great  State  in  the  Mississippi  Valley 
and  of  every  other  place  where  mission  work  has  been  carried  on. 

Our  reports  show  that  in  spite  of  the  great  cost  of  State  building,  in 
spite  of  the  cost  of  building  new  homes  in  the  desert  and  the  construc- 
tion of  public  and  private  institutions  and  in  spite  of  the  accumulated 
fortunes  of  the  East,  our  Baptists  of  this  frontier  are  giving  more  per 
capita  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  in  their  own  midst  than  are  the 
Baptists  of  any  of  the  States  of  the  East.  According  to  the  Baptist 
Year  Book  for  1911  the  Baptists  of  the  whole  countx-y  averaged  for  home 
expenses  $3.63,  and  for  all  purposes  $4.91  per  capita.  At  the  same  time 
the  Baptists  of  this  frontier  raised  $9.13  per  capita  for  home  expenses  and 
$17.35  for  all  purposes.  Or.  take  the  most  favored  States  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts  and  we  find  that  their  Baptists  average 
only  $9.68  for  home  expenses  and  $13.04  for  all  purposes.  In  other 
words,  we  find  that  our  frontier  Baptists  raised  for  all  purposes  almost 
four  times  as  much  as  the  per  capita  average  for  the  whole  country  and 
thirty-three  per  cent,  more  than  the  average  in  the  three  Eastern  States 
mentioned.  In  short,  in  no  single  State  of  the  East  are  the  total  offer- 
ings per  capita  as  large  as  the  average  in  these  eleven  frontier  States. 

More  than  this  the  average  offerings  of  the  missionary  churches  on  the 
frontier  are  larger  than  those  of  their  self-supporting  neighbors.  In 
the  cases  of  many  whole  States  the  members  of  our  missionary  churches 
raise  more  than  $20.00  per  capita  while  the  average  for  the  whole  coun- 
try is,  as  we  have  seen,  only  $4.91. 

Finally,  I  must  call  your  attention  to  the  imperial  importance  of  this 
frontier  in  its  relation  to  the 

Coming  Kingdom  op  Our  Lord  in  all  the  Earth. 

More  and  more  it  is  coming  to  be  that  the  vital  issues  of  the  nation  are 
of  the  West.  This  is  true  in  the  political  life  of  the  land.  Rightly  or 
wrongly  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  will  be  composed  hereafter  of 
forty-four  Senators  from  States  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  fifty- 
two  from  the  States  east  thereof.  In  the  increase  of  members  in  the 
National  House  of  Representatives  occasioned  by  the  new  Census,  the 
West  shares  more  largely  than  the  East  for  obvious  reasons.  This  must 
ever  be  so. 

In  the  frontier  States  mentioned  we  have  971  churches  with  92,414 
members.  They  are  increasing  very  rapidly.  In  some  of  these  States 
the  increase  in  Baptist  membership  has  been  from  200  to  300  per  cent,  in 
the  last  ten  years.    Not  alone  does  this  increase  come  by  letter  but  they 


Wednesday,  June  21.]     RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  213 

are  increasing  by  baptism  faster  than  the  rest  of  the  country.  The  aver- 
age ior  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts  was  3.4  last  year, 
for  the  entire  country  5.6  and  on  this  frontier  it  was  two  per  cent,  higher, 
or  7.(3. 

Since  1850 

more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  has  gone  into  the  treasury  of 
our  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society  from  the  States  which 
have  been  in  that  time  or  are  now  distinctively  Home  Mission  fields. 
Some  of  the  frontier  States  that  I  am  talking  about  have  given  almost, 
if  not  quite,  as  much  already  to  Foreign  Missions  as  has  been  spent  for 
Home  Missions  within  their  borders. 

The  man  who  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  been  the  Secretary  for 
the  Foreign  Mission  Society  for  the  Southwest  District  declares  that 
there  are  more  men  and  women  preaching  the  gospel  on  our  foreign 
fields  from  Kansas  than  from  any  other  State  in  proportion  to  Baptist 
population.  Humanly  speaking,  that  splendid  result  would  have  been 
impossible  had  it  not  been  for  the  more  than  half -century  of  Home  Mis- 
sion work  within  her  borders. 

The  General  Apportionment  Committee 

of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  evidently  realizes  to  some  extent 
the  value  of  these  frontier  States  in  relation  to  their  plans  for  world- 
wide evangelization.  Taking  the  apportionments  for  this  year  which 
are  to  be  distributed  to  the  churches  for  all  purposes,  we  find  that  they 
are  asking  this  frontier  to  give  $1.49  each  while  the  Baptists  of  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts  are  asked  for  $1.35,  or  fourteen 
cents  less. 

Only  a  few  weeks  ago  in  an  address  before  thousands  of  people  at 
Berkeley,  California, 

Ex-President  Eoosevelt 

declared  that  "In  the  future  on  the  Pacific  the  greatest  crises  of  the 
world  will  be  faced."  If  that  is  true  we  must  look  well  to  the  future 
religious  condition  of  these  States. 

John  R.  Mott 

says  in  his  "Decisive  Hour  of  Christian  Missions"  (p.  63)  : 

"The  missionary  forces  cannot  win  the  non-Christian  world  for  Christ 
until  Christian  nations  and  all  their  influences  are  more  thoroughly  per- 
meated by  the  spirit  of  Christ." 

If  this  statement  of  this  modern  prophet  of  God  with  his  world 
vision  is  correct,  more  than  ever  do  we  need  to  give  heed  to  the  thorough 
evangelization  of  our  frontier.  These  are  the  States  that  are  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  those  coming  crises  on  the  Pacific;  these  are  the  States  that  are 
to  feel  the  impact  of  the  give  and  take  of  their  relations  with  the  Orient 
witli  its  ever-increasing  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  the  human  race; 
these  are  the  States  that  will  in  all  their  influences  most  effectually  in- 
terpret to  the  Orient  what  the  religion  of  Jesus  has  done  for  a  so-called 
Christian  nation.    Upon  the  answer  we  are  able  to  give  to  this  challenge 


214  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

will  largely  depend  the  decision  of  these  races  as  to  whether  they  want 
our  religion  or  not.  Are  we  in  a  condition  to  meet  that  challenge  1  Let 
one  example  suffice  though  it  be  gTanted  that  it  is  the  worst.  San 
Trancisco  is  the  largest  city  on  our  Pacific  Coast  and  is  located  by  the 
Golden  Gate,  on  one  of  the  finest  harbors  in  the  world.  By  the  very 
necessities  of  the  case  this  city  is  the  most  strategic  point  for  all  of 
our  contact  with  the  Orient,  but  what  are  its  conditions  with  reference 
to  evangelical  religion?  That  city  in  spite  of  the  earthquake  and  fire, 
has  twice  the  population  that  it  had  in  1890,  yet,  there  are  fewer  mem- 
bers of  evangelical  churches  by  some  4,000  than  there  were  twenty  years 
ago. 

We  think  of  the  Methodists  as  especially  progressive  and  aggressive 
in  the  Home  Mission  work  in  the  "West  and  so  they  are,  but  in  spite  of 
that  there  are  more  bar-tenders  in  San  Francisco  than  members  of  all 
the  Methodist  churches  combined. 

.  Many  believe  that  there  will  be  in  the  not  distant  future  a  new  group- 
ing of  world-power  nations  around  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Note 
well  the  word  Pacific.  It  means  peaceful;  but  broad,  long,  and  deep  as 
that  sea  is  every  wave  will  be  stained  with  human  blood  unless  we  can 
make  the  world-power  nations  on  its  borders  parts  of  the  everlasting 
Kingdom  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  To  this  end  we  must  mark  well  the 
bulwarks  of  our  faith  and  strengthen  them  at  every  point  on  this  fron- 
tier which  is  a  most  strategic  position  in  the  final  campaign  of  the  Chris- 
tian conquest  of  the  world. 

(Applause.) 

The  session  adjourned  after  the  singing  of  the  Doxology  and  benedic- 
tion pronounced  by  Dr.  Crandall. 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECOIW  OF  J'KOCEEDINGS.  215 


SEVENTH   SESSION 


Thursday  Morning,  June  22,  1911. 

The  session  opened  at  9.25  with  a  devotional  service  by  Rev.  Alfred 
Hall,  of  South  Africa. 

Mr.  Hall:  Brethren,  this  is  Coronation  Day,  and  the  citizens  of  the 
British  Empire  will  not  be  ready  to  do  anything  else  until  they  have  done 
one  thing  that  has  been  upon  their  minds  and  upon  their  hearts.  There 
are  five  minutes  now  before  the  opening  of  the  official  program  of  the 
morning,  and  we  propose  to  take  the  prayer  out  of  the  coronation  service 
and  then  to  sing  ''God  Save  the  King,"  and  we  ask  the  rei^'esentatives 
of  other  nations  who  may  be  present  reverently  and  respectfully  to  stand 
with  us  while  we  go  through  these  exercises  of  patriotism  and  loj^alty. 

He  read  the  following  prayer  from  the  coronation  service :  "0  God, 
who  providest  for  thy  people  by  thy  power,  and  rulest  over  them  in  love, 
grant  unto  thy  servant  George,  our  King,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  gov- 
ernment, that  being  devoted  unto  thee  with  all  his  heart,  he  may  so  wisely 
govern  the  Empire  that  in  his  time  thy  church  and  people  may  continue 
in  safety  and  prosperity';  and  that,  persevering  in  good  works  unto  the 
end  he  may,  through  thy  mercy  come  to  thine  everlasting  kingdom; 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  thee  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  ever  one  God,  world  without  end.    Amen." 

"And  Zadok  the  priest  crowned  Solomon  King  and  all  the  people  cried 
and  said,  'God  Save  the  King.'  " 

The  audience  sang,  "God  Save  the  King,"  and  gave  three  cheers  for 
King  George  and  Queen  Mai'y. 

Hymn,  "Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross." 

Scripture  reading  from  Hebrews  eleven,  followed  by  prayer  by  Mr. 
Hall. 

Hymn,  "Bringing  in  the  Sheaves." 

Chairman  F.  B.  Meyer  read  from  I  Chronicles  29.  So  endeth 
the  reading  of  God's  word,  which  is  the  keynote  it  seems  to  me 
of  this  wonderful  day,  the  longest  day  in  the  year,  the  Coronation  Day 
in  our  country,  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  day  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
going  to  gather  up  and  express  in  a  tangible  form  those  mighty  holy 
ambitions  and  thoughts  which  have  been  filling  our  hearts  during  these 
last  few  days.  May  God  Almighty  brood  over  this  mighty  gathering  and 
may  the  result  of  this  morning  be  a  lasting  symbol  of  our  love,  our  pas- 
sion and  our  devotion.  I  have  now  to  ask  my  friend  Dr.  Newton  Mar- 
shall, of  London,  to  give  an  introductory  address.     (Applause.) 


216  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


ADDRESS  BY  NEWTON  H.  MARSHALL,  INTRODUCING  PROCEED- 
INGS OF  THURSDAY,  JUNtI  22. 

Fathers  and  Brethren  : 

This  is  officially  the  second  Baptist  World  Congress.  Official  reckon- 
ings, however,  are  not  always  quite  accurate.  Surely  the  first  Baptist 
World  Congress  was  held  in  Jerusalem  about  1880  years  ago,  but  if  we 
are  determined  to  consider  only  the  modern  Baptist  movement,  ought  we 
not  to  say  that  the  first  Baptist  World  Congress  was  held  in  London  in 
1611,  when  about  forty  returning  exiles,  bent  upon  the  evangelizing  of 
their  own  land  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  prohibitions  of  a  cruelly  per- 
secuting government,  formed  themselves  into  that  little  Baptist  church 
which  heralded  the  dawn  of  the  new  era?  Then  one  upper  room  con- 
tained all  the  Baptists  of  the  world,  a  little  morning  star.  Now,  lo !  the 
vast  assemblage  of  delegates  from  all  the  world,  and  the  sun  swinging 
toward  the  zenith ! 

But  the  radiance  of  this  mighty  marvel  falling  athwart  Europe  shows 
that  proud  continent  as  greatly  in  need  of  the  gospel  as  any  other,  and  I 
stand  here  to  bespeak  the  attention,  the  focused  prayers,  the  active  co- 
operation of  the  Baptists  of  all  the  world,  on  behalf  of  that  Europe  which 
for  many  centuries  has  been  the  peculiar  home  of  the  Christian  religion, 
but  which  to-day  is  so  largely  in  the  grip  of  Anti-christ. 

We  have  to  remember  that  the  history  of  the  Christian  faith  is  not  a 
record  of  unbroken  triumph  but  rather  a  tale  of  defeats  out  of  which  God 
has  wrested  victory :  it  is  a  story  of  poor  human  spirits  scattered  time 
and  again  by  the  grim  forces  of  the  world,  yet  as  often  rallied  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Think  how  Christianity  was  blotted  out  of 
the  Holy  Land  and  Syria  and  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor — out  of  nearly  all 
those  lands  in  which  the  apostles  preached.  But  when  Asia  was  apostate, 
in  Europe  God  raised  to  Himself  new  armies.  Think  how  in  Europe 
paganism  subtly  reasserted  itself,  insidiously  invaded  the  church 
and  masqueraded  as  Christianity  until  God  rallied  to  Him- 
self the  champions  of  Protestantism.  But  alas!  Protestantism 
has  been  itself  in  Europe  so  much  taken  up  with  partisan 
polemics,  so  closely  associated  Avith  the  fortunes  of  princes 
and  the  national  ambitions  of  certain  arrogant  races,  that  a  purer  the- 
ology and  a  less  idolatrous  liturgy  have  been  impotent  to  save  it  from  a 
fate  very  like  that  of  Romanism  and  the  Greek  Orthodox  church.  Lu- 
theranism  as  a  State  establishment  stinks  in  the  nostrils  of  the  prole- 
tariat of  Europe.  And  so  North,  South,  East  and  West  in  Europe  the  same 
sad  tale  is  told.  What  is  Jesus  to-day  to  the  masses  of  France  and 
Spain  and  Portugal,  of  Italy  and  Germany  and  Holland,  of  Austria  and 
Russia?  To  some  a  mere  dumb  figure  carved  upon  a  crucifix:  to  some 
an  empty  phrase  in  an  old-world  creed :  to  some  a  myth  at  which  tolerant 
men  may  smile :  to  some  a  word  of  magic  terror  on  the  lips  of  priests. 
And  what  is  perhaps  worse,  the  policy  of  emperors  and  kings  has  so 
craftily  associated  the  throne  with  the  church  that  every  movement  to- 
wards liberty  and  enlightenment  has  found  set  against  it  the  dead  oppo- 
sition of  the  so-called  representatives  of  Christ  from  one  end  of  Europe 
to  the  other,  and  brave  and  vigorous  and  sympathetic  souls  have  been 
nurtured  in  the  belief  that  they  could  best  serve  their  fellowmen  by  de- 


Thursday,  June  22.  J       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  217 

stroyiiig  the  Church  of  Chi'ist,  while  on  the  other  hand,  pagan  prophets 
like  Nietzsche  and  Haeekel  and  Ferrer  have  found  an  eager  crowd  to 
accept  their  teaching. 

Such  has  been  the  situation  in  Europe  these  many  years.  What  did 
it  portend?  Was  America  to  take  the  place  of  Europe  as  the  Christian 
continent,  just  as  Europe  had  taken  the  place  of  Asia?  That  might  be, 
and  may  yet  well  be.  None  can  measure  the  great  destiny  of  American 
Christendom.  But  was  Europe  to  sink  back  into  paganism  altogether? 
God  forbid!  How  great  a  menace  to  the  whole  world  a  paganized  Eu- 
rope Avould  be!  Surely  the  well-being  of  the  race  demanded  that  Europe 
be  won  back  again  for  Christ !  The  present  situation  is  full  of  danger  to 
America,  for  it  means  that  her  immigrants  are  to  be  increasingly  pagan. 
It  is  full  of  danger  to  missionary  enterprises,  for  it  means  that  the  peo- 
ples of  the  East,  looking  eagerly  to  "Christian"  Europe,  find  there  a 
civilization  that  denies  the  Lord. 

Many  souls  have  been  anxious  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  But  anxiety  is 
no  proper  spirit  in  which  to  do  the  work  of  God.  Anxietj'  in  the  affairs 
of  the  kingdom  is  always  foolish — trust  is  always  wise.  And  meanwhile, 
unknown  to  most  of  us,  and  to  the  general  religious  world, 
God  had  been  at  work  laying  new  foundations  for  a  new  church  in 
the  very  midst  of  ancient  Christendom,  so  that  when  the  waves  of  scepti- 
cism and  superstition  have  swept  away  the  older  and  more  ornate  edifices 
a  temple  of  a  purer  and  simple  order  will  stand  in  which  the  Europeans 
of  a  new  centurj'  may  worship  the  Lord. 

What  are  the  facts?  For  many  years  the  American  Baptist  Mission- 
ary Board  has  carried  on  its  work  in  some  parts  of  Europe — has  had  its 
agents  in  Italy,  and  has  contributed  large  sums  to  the  support  of  Bap- 
tist churches  in  France,  in  Switzerland  and  in  some  other  parts.  For 
man}-  years  the  British  Baptist  Missionarj-  Society  has  also  carried  on 
its  work  in  Italy  and  Brittany.  Thank  God,  we  have  not  been  without 
some  sense  of  the  needs  of  Europe.  But  these  missionary  undertakings 
have  been  in  the  main  confined  to  Roman  Catholic  countries  and  (it  is 
no  use  disguising  the  facts)  have  not  made  the  great  progi-ess  we  have 
longed  to  see.  The  greatest  advance  has  been  made  all  independently  of 
our  direct  participation  or  even  (in  part)  of  our  knowledge.  Seventy-five 
years  ago  Oncken  and  six  others  were  baptized  in  the  Elbe — his  wife 
Sarah,  Diedrieh  Lange  the  shoemaker,  Heinrich  Kruger,  Ernest  Bucken- 
dahl  and  Johannes  Gusdorff — and  were  baptized  by  an  Amerean.  Mr. 
Sears.  They  are  in  heaven  now.  all  that  little  company  and  are  doubtless 
aware  of  what  we  are  doing  here.  All  they  knew  then  was  that  they  were 
obeying  the  Lord  Christ.  How  gladdened  their  hearts  would  have  been  had 
they  foreseen  this  day !  But  their  works  do  follow  them !  Here  in  this  as- 
sembly are  the  men  and  women  that  their  devotion  directly  or  indirectly 
called  into  the  fellowship  of  the  primitive  Christian  church.  Here  in 
Philadelphia  to-day  stand  some  who  are  of  Oncken 's  spiritual  posterity, 
and  some  who  trace  their  descent  from  Oncken 's  twin  brother,  Lehmann 
of  Berlin,  who,  independently  of  Oncken,  started  a  Baptist  mission  move- 
ment about  the  same  time  as  he.  The  effects  of  Oncken  's  work  rapidlj' 
became  international.  In  1848  this  new  apostle  baptized  the  Swedish 
sailor  Nilsson  and  soon  a  Baptist  church  was  in  Sweden.  By  and  by, 
partly  through  the  German  Baptists  Alf  and  Aschendorf,  partly  by  other 
channels,  Baptist  churches  sprang  up  in  Russia.     In  every  direction  the 


218  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

movement  spread,  reaching  Holland  in  1846,  Switzerland  in  1849,  Hun- 
gary in  1873  and  later  on,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria.  Some  churches  were 
founded  by  Oncken's  agents,  some  sprang  into  existence  independently, 
by  the  simple  reading  of  the  Word  of  God  and  so,  silently  and  irresisti- 
bly, directed  by  the  loving  Spirit  of  our  Saviour,  the  little  Baptist  com- 
panies grew  stronger  and  stretched  themselves  more  widely,  linking  up  at 
last  wdth  the  Baptist  workers  in  Latin  Eurojae,  and  stretching  out  to  the 
Far  East  until  to-day  it  is  hard  to  say  that  any  European  land  is  without 
its  Baptist  testimony.  From  Morlaix  and  Niort  in  the  western  borders 
of  France  one  may  travel  straight  east  to  Harbin  on  the  margin  of  Man- 
churia, or  from  Hammerfest  well  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  one  may  travel 
south  to  Valencia  or  Sofia  and  pass  continually  by  Baptist  churches— 
sometimes  tiny,  like  that  at  Munich  with  its  score  of  members,  sometimes 
mighty  and  prosperous  like  the  First  Church  of  Berlin,  with  its  1,284 
members,  but  always  steadily  increasing,  increasing  more  rapidly  than  the 
population,  swiftly  and  silently  taking  their  places  among  the  perman- 
ent and  operative  institutions  of  European  culture. 

It  is  easy  in  general  terms  to  tell  of  this  swift  progress  of  the 
cause  of  Christ,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  for  most  of  us  to  realize  what  lies 
behind  these  general  terms.  The  foundations  of  a  great  church  are  not 
easily  laid.  The  stones  that  are  used  in  the  building  are  quarried  with 
continual  suffering  and  under  abuse  and  wrong,  and  are  cemented  to- 
gether with  blood  and  tears.  In  every  age  this  must  be  so.  Paul  tells  us 
the  story  of  his  long  agony  as  he  went  from  city  to  city  the  despised  and 
tortured  advocate  of  a  Christ  that  had  been  rejected  again  and  again: 
he  tells  us  of  the  murderers  that  assailed  him  and  the  rulers  that  con- 
demned him.  What  Paul  knew  every  pioneer  has  known  in  some  measure, 
whether  he  be  a  John  Smythe  in  the  Netherlands,  a  Roger  Williams  in 
New  England,  a  John  Bunyan  in  Bedford,  a  Carej^  in  Bengal,  or  a  Judson 
in  Burma.  And  the  heroisms  of  the  Baptist  pioneers  are  confined  neither 
to  the  first  centuries  nor  to  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
They  are  among  the  chief  spiritual  glories  of  the  nineteenth  century  too, 
and  reach  us  down  to  this  very  twentieth  century,  nay  this  very  hour. 
Seme  day — and  it  may  well  be  soon — some  historian  may  have  the  privi- 
lege of  giving  to  the  world  the  story  of  the  Baj^tist  struggle  for  truth 
and  liberty  under  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  despotisms  of  Europe  during 
these  eighty  j'ears.  Such  an  historian  will  tell  us  of  the  five  years  of  bitter 
persecution  which  Oncken  and  his  growing  church  in  Hamburg  had  to 
face — years  of  calumny,  of  insult,  of  brutal  assault,  of  fine  and  impi'ison- 
ment,  as  the  Hamburg  Senate  strove  in  vain  to  destroy  this  growth  of 
stubborn  heretics,  root  and  branch.  He  will  tell  us  how,  in  beautiful 
Marburg,  the  scene  of  Luther's  conferences  Avith  Zwingli  and  the  knights, 
as  well  as  in  many  another  ancient  place  of  honorable  history,  the  long 
dead  laws  directed  against  the  Anabaptists  were  resuscitated  in  order  to 
force  the  Baptists  by  fine,  imprisonment  and  threat  of  exile  to  have  their 
children  christened.  He  will  tell  us  how,  in  1840,  a  terrible  storm  of  per- 
secution burst  over  the  little  Baptist  church,  just  founded  by  that  great 
orator  and  Baptist  poet  Julius  Kobner,  in  Denmark,  and  how  wherever 
the  German  Baptist  preachers  went  they  had  to  face  priest,  pastor  and 
police  in  luiholy  alliance  against  them.  The  same  story  will  be  told  of 
Saxony,  Austria,  and  Bavaria,  where  down  to  this  day  the  law  hems  in 
the  Baptist  work  on  every  hand,  of  Hungary,  where  what  liberty  is  now 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  219 

enjoyed  lias  been  won  by  patient  sutTerin<;' — was  not  Heinrich  Meyer 
scourged  and  ducked  and  burnt  and  harried  from  villajj:e  to  village,  his 
goods  sold  and  himself  imprisoned?  And  how  will  our  liistorian  tell  the 
noble  tale  of  Russian  martyrdoms?  Exile  in  Sibeiia,  repeated  imprison- 
ment, dastardly  outrage,  and  even  murder,  have  marked  the  labors  of  our 
heroes  in  that  sad  land.  Most  of  the  delegates  from  Russia  to  this  Con- 
gress have  suffered  in  this  fashion.  Their  souls  have  been  nurtured  on 
prison  fare  that  has  weakened  their  bodies.  They  are  the  noble  company 
of  the  fettered,  the  knights  of  the  order  of  the  knout.  Thank  God  for 
them  all !  Swede  and  Frenchman,  Dane  and  German,  Czech  and  Magyar, 
Bulgar  and  Roumanian,  Lett  and  Finn,  Russian  and  Pole — they  bear 
in  their  persons  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  prove  with  their  blood 
their  apostolic  succession. 

And  now  they  are  here  in  our  midst  in  Philadelphia.  To  what  end? 
To  receive  our  congratulations  ?  To  be  cheered  by  the  praise  of  men  ?  To 
taste  a  little  luxury  before  going  back  to  their  toil  and  suffering?  Any 
who  should  think  such  things  know  neither  the  stuff  these  men  and  wo- 
men are  made  of  nor  the  nature  of  the  task  God  has  entrusted  to  their 
care.  The  Baptist  cause  in  Europe,  and  especially  in  Eastern  and  South- 
eastern Europe,  is  the  evangelical  cause.  Our  people  are  not  the  founders 
of  a  denomination :  in  a  far  wider  sense  than  perhaps  they  themselves 
know  they  are  the  custodians  of  the  gospel.  In  the  land  of  John  Huss 
our  brethren  are  the  inheritors  of  Huss's  faith.  In  Hungary  the  only 
land  in  the  world  where  Unitarianism  is  one  of  the  State  religions,  the 
Baptists  represent  the  gospel  almost  single  handed.  In  Germany  the 
Baptists  are  the  life  and  soul  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  In  Russia — 
thank  God,  in  Russia,  there  is  a  wistful  and  pathetic  yearning  of  the  peo- 
ple for  the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Christ.  All  ranks  of  society  seek  the  Sa- 
viour. Our  ministers  can  preach  sermons  three  hours  long  and  the  peo- 
ple will  sit  on  and  on  listening,  not  patiently,  but  eagerly,  as  those  who 
want  to  hear  the  message.  And  the  dull  hostilitj'  of  the  priests  glows 
against  the  Baptists  because  of  the  Baptist  gospel.  Our  European  dele- 
gates have  come  in  the  face  of  great  difficulties — threats  of  vengeance 
when  they  return,  and  every  other  sort  of  official  hindrance.  The  ecclesi- 
astical authorities,  like  our  delegates  themselves,  expect  that  the  Baptists 
of  the  world,  when  they  hear  the  story  of  the  Baptists  of  Europe,  will 
come  to  tlieir  aid.  They  expect  that  a  new  crusade  Avill  be  preached,  a 
crusade  of  love  and  not  of  hate,  a  crusade  to  establish  tlie  throne  of  the 
living  Christ  and  not  to  succor  His  tomb.  See  what  is  expected  of  us 
this  day! 

So  this  day  brings  to  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  a  warning,  for  it 
tells  of  the  growing  paganism  of  a  Continent  professedly  Christian;  an 
opjiort unity,  for  it  displays  the  wonderful  way  in  which  God,  in  nearly 
every  country  of  Europe,  has  opened  the  way  for  a  new  proclamation  of 
the  Gospel  by  the  Baptists;  and  a  challenge,  for  it  is  only  the  Baptist 
"World  Alliance  that  can  rightly  and  successfully  carry  on  to  triumph 
the  cause  that  the  European  delegates  advocate.  The  true  watchword  of 
this  Congress  should  be — Europe  for  Christ ! 

Chairman  :  Your  sympathy  Avith  your  brothers  may  be  a  little  exer- 
cised to-day.  Some  of  our  brothers  do  not  talk  quite  so  quickly  as  Amer- 
icanese  demands,  but  you  will  be  patient.    If  they  can  be  for  long  months 


220  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

and  years  silent  in  prison,  we  can  be  still  even  if  they  stumble  a  little  in 
the  English  speech.  We  are  going  to  give  them  our  time  to-day,  our  lov- 
ing sympathy,  and  we  will  try  some  day  to  learn  their  language  as  well 
as  they  are  trying  to  learn  ours.  We  are  going  to  be  very  sharp  in  the 
time  of  this  meeting  and  it  will  close  at  12.30,  but  I  think  you  will  make 
a  profound  mistake  unless  you  keep  steady  all  the  time  in  your  seat,  all 
the  time  lifting  your  heart  to  God  saying,  "Great  God,  send  a  waft  of 
thy  mighty  breath  over  this  mighty  gathering."  Clap  if  you  like,  but 
pray  also  for  the  breath  of  God. 


REPORT  OF  THE  HUNGARIAN  MISSION. 
By  A.  UDVARNIKI. 

The  beginning  of  the  expansion  of  the  Hungarian  Baptist  Mission  is 
to  be  traced  back  to  the  year  1873.  At  that  time  the  same  movement 
spread  among  the  Germans,  and  forthwith  passed  over  to  the  Hungar- 
ians, the  Slavs,  and  the  Koumanians. 

Experience  teaches  that  there  is  scarcely  any  country'  on  the  Conti- 
nent of  Europe  that  is  so  receptive  for  Baptist  principles  as  Hungary. 
Several  religious  communities,  such  as  the  Methodist,  the  Adventists,  the 
Nazarenes  (these  last  are  indeed  somewhat  widely  spread  in  Hungary) 
have  made  the  attempt  to  establish  themselves,  and  even  the  Salvation 
Army  was  at  last  asked  why  they  did  not  come  to  Hungary  whereto  they 
replied :  ' '  We  have,  as  yet,  received  no  command  from  God  to  go  to  Hun- 
gary."  The  nature  of  baptism  and  the  spirit  of  the  Hungarian  people 
are  much  in  agreement.  The  Hungarian  people  is  a  freedom-loving 
people.  This  peculiarity  has  held  its  ground  also  in  the  domain  of  re- 
ligion. 

It  is  easy  to  be  explained  through  the  evangelical  doctrine,  but  the  pre- 
vailing Rationalism  opposes  great  hindrances  in  the  way  of  faith.  Hun- 
gary besides  the  peculiarities  of  its  own  people  is  of  great  importance  for 
the  Eastern  countries,  because  on  account  of  its  geographical  position  it 
is  both  adapted  and  called  to  extend  to  them  civilization.  In  Hungary 
are  almost  all  the  nationalities  of  the  Eastern  lands  represented,  and 
again,  many  Hungarians  and  Germans  are  scattered  in  those  lands.  The 
combination  is  thus  at  hand  and  along  with  it  the  possibility  to  culti- 
vate it.     The  mission-key  to  the  East  is  Hungary. 

In  speaking  of  the  present  position  of  the  Hungarian  mission  we  come 
thus  to  mention  two  things : 

1.  The  great  blessing  which  we  have  experienced. 

2.  The  great  needs  which  must  be  regarded — eighteen  million  souls 
(with  20  Croats),  are  waiting  in  Hungary  for  gospel  freedom. 

The  work  hitherto  done  has  proportionally  shown  very  gratifying  re- 
sults. The  number  of  baptized  believers  is  over  fifteen  thousand.  More 
than  one  thousand  are  baptized  every  year.  More  than  some  five  hundred 
preaching  stations  in  the  country,  but  still  many  counties  where  the  Bap- 
tists have  not  yet  labored.  Of  late  for  the  most  part  conversions  have 
taken  place  among  the  Greeks  and  Roman  Catholics.  Some  four  million 
Roumanians  live  in  Hungary  who  are  very  ready  to  receive  the  gospel  and 


^^K      ^'^^S^^^^^^B^'^ 

1 

•^P^SfS 

Kill"'' 

^ 

Thursday,  June  22.J       RECOIW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  221 

of  whom  six  thousand  are  converted.  In  general,  the  Baptists  in  Hun- 
gai'y  rejoice  in  a  good  reputation,  because  they  are  able  to  boast  not  only 
of  a  pure  doctrine,  but  also  of  the  moral  life  of  their  members  whereby 
they  exert  a  wholesome  influence  upon  the  people;  for  in  Hungary  the 
first  question  is,  not  "What  dost  thou  teach?"  but,  "How  dost  thou 
live'?"  (James  2:  14).  As  everywhere,  so  also  in  Hungary  religion  is  only 
an  outward  ecclesiastical  form  without  actual  substance.  The  pious 
walk,  the  moral  demeanor  of  the  Baptists  who  avoid  tobacco-smoking 
(as  an  ugly  passion),  the  enjoyment  of  alcohol,  dancing,  the  theatre, 
etc.,  and  hold  to  tiie  sanctification  of  the  Sunday  on  which  they  neither 
buy  nor  travel  nor  work  but  cultivate  fellowship  with  God  exercise  a 
wholesome  influence  upon  the  people. 

Not  less  striking  is  the  love  of  the  Baptists  to  the  Word 
of  God.  Almost  all  Baptists  have  a  Bible  by  them.  The 
man  who  works  on  the  land  takes  the  Bible  with  him  to  the  field  in 
order  during  the  interval  of  rest  to  read  therein.  Striking  is  it  also  that 
wherever  they  go  or  stay  they  bear  their  testimony.  Here  are  a  few  ex- 
amples :  A  farmer  appeared  lately  in  the  Pasteur  Institute  at  Buda-Pest. 
Among  the  numerous  invalids  there  was  also  a  National  school  teacher, 
who  declared  aloud  that  there  is  no  God.  The  public  excited  themselves 
thereupon.  Then  our  brother  took  his  Bible  out  of  his  pocket  and  op- 
posed the  assertions  of  the  teacher  through  the  Scriptures.  The  brother 
obtained  at  once  the  oi^portunity  for  reading  to  the  people  for  two  hours 
out  of  the  Word.  The  teacher  was  hereby  put  to  shame  and  silenced. 
Another  brother  out  of  gratitude  for  the  care  he  had  received  handed  a 
Bible  to  the  head-physician  who  accepted  the  same  with  great  joy.  A 
journeyman  tailor  evangelized  in  a  village  occupied  only  by  the  Re- 
formed. Once  must  he  have  had  an  affair  with  the  parson,  who  ad- 
dressed him  as  follows :  ' '  Good  friend,  why  do  you  disturb  the  members 
of  my  church  through  your  addresses?"  Whereupon  the  brother  an- 
swered: "Dear,  much-respected  pastor,  your  church  in  no  way  concerns 
me.  I  have  onlj-  to  do  with  the  sinners  whom  I  call  to  repentance."  An- 
other brother  went  into  a  Catholic  village.  After  a  short  time  the  peo- 
ple said  to  him:  "If  we  had  such  a  man  regularly  among  us,  we  could 
learn  much  and  thei'e  would  be  many  conversions.  Our  parson  does  not 
speak  of  such  matters. ' '  The  social  movements  which  appear  in  connec- 
tion with  the  rejection  of  God  and  religion  in  Hungary  are  only  dan- 
gerous for  the  dead  church,  for  us  Baptists,  on  the  contrary,  are  they 
rather  of  use  than  injurious.  Because  they  draw  the  people,  who  for  the 
most  part  embrace  the  Catholic  faith,  away  from  its  fanaticism  and  big- 
otry, the  people  become  as  a  consequence  more  accessible  for  the  gospel. 
Even  the  lower  orders  of  the  people  are  beginning  to  awake  out  of  their 
one  thousand  years'  soul-sleep.  As  soon  as  a  Baptist  enters  into  con- 
versation with  anyone,  the  first  question  on  the  part  of  the  addressed  is: 
"Why  does  not  our  parson  say  this?"  or  "Our  parson  himself  holds  not 
this;  why  should  we  hold  it?"  The  cleric,  on  account  of  the  deficiencies 
of  his  moral  walk,  has  lost  his  influence  and  esteem. 

The  Baptist  Union  also  practises  beneficence.  It  maintains  two  homes 
for  the  aged,  besides  caring  for  the  orphans  and  the  poor  through  an 
Orphan-father.  The  orphan  children  are  placed  in  families,  and,  for  the 
poor,  care  is  taken  through  a  common  fund.  The  mission  to  the  heathen 
in  the  Cameroons  is  also  supported  according  to  our  strength.  The  Union 
likewise  publishes  several  writings,  e.  g. :  a  calendar  in  four  languages. 


222  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAACE. 

and  has  five  different  periodicals.  Within  fifteen  years  it  has  published 
six  different  hymn-books  for  different  purposes  and  in  different  forms. 
In  the  year  1910  a  printing  i^ress  has  been  established  of  which  the  over- 
sight is  exercised  by  a  committee.  Further,  the  Baptists  have  a  school  for 
preachers  which  was  founded  in  Buda-Pest  in  1906  and  has  a  four  years' 
prescribed  course.  This  school  also  stands  under  the  guidance  of  a  com- 
mittee. The  cost  of  maintenance  of  the  school  is  covered  by  the  school 
fund,  the  collection  for  this  fund  rests  on  the  whole. 

What  are  the  needs  in  Hungary?  We  owe  thanks  to  the  Lord  for 
what  has  been  reported,  but  at  the  same  time  we  have  obligations  toward 
this  hopeful  mission  field. 

There  shows  itself  a  great  want  in  congregational  life  in  consequence 
of  the  rapid  extension  of  the  work,  so  that  the  inner  growth  cannot  keep 
step  with  the  outer.  The  character  of  the  work  hitherto  has  been  more 
in  evangelistic  effort.  The  Hungarian  is  more  adapted  for  evangelistic 
work  for  which  we  hitherto  had  and  still  have  men.  Therewith,  how- 
ever, can  one  attach  little  weight  to  soul-nourishment.  The  greater  or 
lesser  communities  so  formed  were  left  to  themselves  or  entrusted  to  the 
lead  of  an  elder  chosen  out  of  their  own  circle  who,  however,  for  the  most 
part  possessed  a  very  small  degree  of  cultivation.  Until  the  year  1893 
they  had  only  two  theologically  cultivated  men,  who  moreover  were  of 
German  tongue.  The  number  of  members  grew,  the  members  grew  also — 
but  how  f  Awry !  In  consequence  of  the  scanty  education,  came  division 
and  ructions,  diversified  oi^inions  and  defection.  A  melancholy  example 
of  this  is,  that  a  community  of  sixty  members  from  want  of  proper 
guidance  become  completely  dispersed.  The  greater  part  of  the  mem- 
bers have  become  Nazarenes,  the  other  part  has  fallen  back  to  the  old 
church. 

Among  the  present  six  thousand  Roumanians  there  are  no  theologic- 
ally trained  men  (at  present  there  are  three  Roumanian  youths  at  the 
preachers'  school)  and  of  those  who  are  in  some  measure  cultivated  there 
are  only  a  few.  In  consequence  of  the  lack  of  men  to  govern,  one  man  is 
compelled  to  care  for  from  5,  10,  15,  20,  25  to  50  stations.  These  work 
themselves  so  fully  out  that  they  are  invalid  before  the  time,  and, 
become  blind,  deaf,  and  rheumatic.  In  consequence  of  the  rapid  exten- 
sion of  the  congregations  (which  everywhere  carries  with  it  the  necessity 
for  chapel-building)  the  fund  for  the  laborers'  support  must  suffer.  To 
that  must  be  added  the  great  poverty  of  the  members.  This  necessity 
according  to  our  opinion,  can  onlj^  be  helped  by  the  outside  training  of 
the  mission  workers  and  a  vigorous  financial  support  from  abroad.  At 
present  we  could  already  employ  one  hundred  soul-carers  if  we  had  them 
and  the  necessary  means  in  addition.  The  Adventists  and  Methodists 
take  care  to  have  a  pastor  for  every  one  hundred  souls — the  Baptists  in 
Hungary  have  scarcely  one  for  a  thousand. 

It  would  be  desirable  also  so  to  construe  the  school  for  preachers  that 
missionaries  for  the  Eastern  countries  could  also  here  be  prepared.  The 
language  difficulties  would  probably  occasion  no  hindrance,  for  there  are 
many  Hungarians  who  speak  one  or  other  of  the  Eastern  tongv;es,  and 
again  it  may  be  that  one  who  is  not  a  Magyar  speaks  Hungarian.  It  is 
necessary  in  addition  to  make  such  prei^aration  as  that  the  teachers 
shall  be  able  to  devote  their  whole  time  to  the  school.  It  would  be  ex- 
tremely needful  to  erect  a  school  building,  M'hich  the  Hungarian  mission 
is  not,  at  the  time,  in  a  position  to  effect.     Further,  it  would  be  neces- 


Thursday,  June  -22.1        UEVORD  OF  I'liOCEEDINGS.  223 

sary  to  produce  the  literature  in  greater  measure  wbicli  hitherto  on  ac- 
count of  the  poverty  of  the  people  and  the  dearness  of  the  press,  even 
with  the  best  ■will,  could  not  be  done. 

We  lierewitli  thankfully  mention  the  supijort  of  the  English  and 
American  missionary  committees  wherewith  they  have  considered  a  tew 
of  our  bretliren,  but  a  general  su^jport  of  the  mission  in  Hungary  would 
be  a  necessity. 


THE     CHRISTIANIZING    OF     THE    WORLD— ESPECIALLY    THE 

WORK  AMONG  THE  SLAV  RACES  OF  BOHEMIA  AND 

THE  BORDERING  COUNTRIES. 

By  NORBERT  N.  CAPEK,  Brunn,  Moravia. 

In  the  vei'y  centre  of  Europe,  that  is,  in  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Upper  Hun- 
gary, and  Lower  Austria  live  the  Slav  races,  who  are  known  by  different 
names,  as  Bohemians,  Moravians,  Slovaks  and  Czechs;  but  they  are  only 
one  nation  with  one  tongue  and  one  history.  This  nation  deserves  the  at- 
tention of  the  whole  Baptist  world.  It  was  the  cradle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion; here  men  and  women  were  burnt  at  the  stake,  and  martyrs  shed 
their  blood  during  the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  1315  in  a  single 
month  fourteen  of  our  sisters  and  brethren  were  burnt  for  Christ's  sake. 
Onehundred  years  afterwards  the  best  son  of  our  nation,  John  Huss,  was 
burnt  in  Constance.  Further,  100  years  after  that,  when  your  famous 
forefathers  left  the  shores  of  England  in  the  ''Mayflower,"  this  nation 
was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  religious  free- 
dom of  Europe.  The  rest  who  remained  alive  were  scattered  in  strange 
lands.  Out  of  three  million  souls  only  800,000  were  left,  and  the  pope 
exulted  and  ordered  festivals  because  the  most  dangerous  anti-Romish 
nation  was  brought  to  ruin. 

For  200  3-ears  the  Roman  vampire  clutched  in  his  claws  his  prey,  the 
Czechs,  who  had  forced  upon  them  a  foreign  language,  political  bondage 
and  his  corrupt  religion. 

God  Himself  watched  over  this  people.  There  are  now  about  ten  mil- 
lion Czechs  well  known  as  the  most  intelligent  tribe  of  the  great  Slav 
family.  They  are  also  the  most  advanced  among  the  races  of  Austria 
and  Hungary.  Fifty  years  ago  no  Czech  school  was  allowed  to  exist ;  to- 
day we  have  only  4.26  per  cent,  illiterate  people,  whereas  the  Germans 
have  6.85  per  cent,  and  the  Magyars  56.72  per  cent.  Fifty  years  ago  we 
had  only  one  daily  paper,  to-day  there  are  1,100.  The  English  traveler, 
Francis  H.  E.  Palmer  says  of  the  Czechs:  "Hard  working  and  intelligent, 
they  represent  one  of  the  most  valuable  factors  in  the  development  of 
modern  Austria;  and  the  high  position  held  by  many  of  them  in  indus- 
try, in  the  university  and  in  literature,  art  and  music,  proves  conclu- 
sively that  they  are  no  unworthy  descendants  of  the  old  Bohemian  re- 
forrtiers  whose  misfortune  it  was  to  have  been  born  a  few  centuries  in 
advance  of  their  time." 

Another  traveler,  the  American  Sidney  Whitman  writes:  "Wlioever 
knows  what  Bohemia  was  thirtj-  years  ago,  and  compares  the  racial  con- 
ditions then  with  those  of  to-day,  must  wonder  at  changes  that  have 


224  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

taken  place.  The  Czech  has  progressed  in  a  measure  that  cannot  fail  to 
strike  impartial  obsei'\'ers  with  wonder. ' ' 

Everyone  who  is  acquainted  with  the  state  of  affairs,  knows  that  the 
Czechs  have  succeeded  not  only  nationally,  politically,  economically  and 
in  culture,  but  they  are  on  the  eve  of  a  new  religious  awakening. 

Officially  97  per  cent,  of  the  Czechs  are  Roman  Catholics,  but  it  is  true 
that  as  a  whole  they  never  were  good  Catholics.  But  the  number  of  men 
increases,  who  leave  the  Catholic  Church  and  stand  by  idle,  not  knowing 
what  to  do.  Lately  they  began  to  publish  a  paper  named  ''Zora,"  in 
English  "Aurora,"  where  we  read:  "We  ex-Catholics  seem  to  be  com- 
ical. No  wonder!  Imagine  the  position  of  a  man  like  one  of  us.  He  dis- 
likes Catholicism  and  leaves  it.  But  what  shall  he  do  afterwards,  if  he 
is  fond  of  spiritual  things,  and  longs  for  religion'?  Where  shall  he  take 
refuge?  In  Austrian  Protestantism?  He  does  not  know  it,  and  what  he 
knows  about  it  appears  repulsive  and  dead  to  him."  In  another  part  we 
read  in  the  same  paper:  "Only  the  historic  shell  of  the  old  Moravian 
fraternity  belongs  to  the  past,  but  the  kernel  remains,  which  is  to  be  in 
the  future  the  only  program  which  the  Czechs  can  entertain." 

I  was  told  the  Baptists  would  not  start  a  mission  among  the  Czechs  on 
account  of  the  Congregationalists  who  are  working  in  Bohemia.  I  hope 
it  is  not  true.  The  Congregationalists  with  their  inconsistency  can  never 
win  the  hearts  of  the  Czechs.  A  man  who  left  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
hates  everything  which  savors  of  Rome.  Therefore  a  church  which  ac- 
knowledges every  kind  of  baptism  and  gives  everybody  the  choice,  is 
supposed  to  be  a  storekeeper,  so  to  say,  in  religion. 

I  once  asked  Dr.  Masaryk,  when  he  came  to  see  me,  if  in  his  opinion 
the  Czechs  in  their  new  reformation  would  institute  among  themselves  in- 
fant baptism.  Dr.  Masaryk  is  well  known  in  America;  he  lectured  at  the 
University  of  Chicago  and  other  American  institutes.  He  is  professor  of 
the  University  of  Prague  and  one  of  the  first  authorities  in  Europe  on 
sociology.  He  is  also  a  member  of  Parliament  for  Moravia,  a  most  hon- 
ored leader  of  the  Czechs  and  a  propagator  of  a  new  reformation  among 
them.  He  said  to  me:  "I  doubt  that  infant  baptism  could  be  introduced, 
for  it  would  destroy  the  principle  of  soul  freedom  which  we  must  up- 
hold." 

I  may  add  that  the  same  man  spoke  at  a  memorable  open-air  meeting 
the  following  words,  which  w^ere  reported  by  all  Czech  papers:  "Wfe  are 
no  longer  true  Czechs,  and  cannot  be  such  if  we  do  not  advance  in  the 
direction  of  our  reformation."  Again  he  said:  "An  effort  to  acquire 
new  morality,  higher  and  purer  godliness,  that  is  the  object  of  our  re- 
formation. ' ' 

From  England  and  America  we  sometimes  hear  a  voice  saying  that 
Roman  Catholicism  is  as  good  as  any  other  Christian  religion  and  that  it 
is  not  necessary  to  do  mission  work  among  the  Catholics.  Men  speaking 
so  have  never  lived  in  a  Roman  Catholic  land,  and  if  they  have,  they 
must  be  blind.  The  Romanists  when  living  in  a  Protestant  land  care- 
fi;lly  hide  their  horns  behind  pretty  rags  of  charity. 

The  Catholicism  that  we  have  become  acquainted  with  is  in  nd  way  a 
true  religion,  but  a  political  system  by  which  men  shall  be  ruled  and 
sucked  of  their  property,  for  which  religion  is  only  a  mask. 

When  elections  take  place,  the  altar,  the  confessional,  heaven  and  hell, 
the  Madonna  and  all  the  saints  are  held  over  the  heads  of  the  people  to 
force  them  to  vote  in  favor  of  the  priests '  candidates.    The  corruption  of 


Thursday,  June  22. J       REVORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  225 

priests  is  deeper  than  hell.  Auricular  confession  is  not  only  a  danger  to 
weak  women  and  girls  but  even  to  children  of  both  sexes.  In  Roman 
Catholic  countries  every  day  crimes  of  priests  come  to  light  of  which 
people  are  ashamed  to  speak.  Not  only  sexual  crimes  belong  to  this 
chapter,  which  are  countless  indeed,  but  also  ill  treatment  of  little  girls. 

The  following  event  took  place  lately  in  Nova  Bela,  not  far  from 
Brno  Brnnn  Avhere  I  live.  A  priest,  teaching  religion,  struck  a  little 
girl  on  her  head  so  violently  that  she  died  a  few  days  afterwards  of  in- 
flammation of  the  brain. 

Another  girl  of  twelve  came  weeping  to  a  priest  to  tell  him  that  her 
father  had  died.  The  priest  instead  of  giving  her  comfort  committed  a 
sexual  crime.  These  are  only  two  cases  out  of  a  thousand  which  I  my- 
self, as  an  editor,  was  obliged  to  report.  Such  experiences  occurring  in 
daily  life  turn  people  from  religion,  and,  finding  no  compensation,  they 
become  worse  and  more  unhappy  than  the  heathen  in  darkest  Africa. 

Romanism  also  degrades  woman,  calls  her  unclean,  a  lower  being,  and 
a  limb  of  the  devil.  In  a  leading  Roman  Catholic  paper  we  read  that  the 
darkest  side  of  i^jnerica  is  the  fact  that  women  are  put  everywhere  on 
the  same  level  with  men. 

Romanism  is  an  enemy  of  enlightenment  and  holds  back  every  nation 
in  its  progress.  Comjaare  Spain  with  England.  Not  even  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  ai'e  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops  ashamed  of  wishing  to 
bring  back  the  time  when  they  were  strong  enough  to  burn  people  at  the 
stake. 

In  our  land  the  Roman  Catholic  priests  boast  that  if  they  should  be 
turned  out  by  the  Slavic  and  Roman  races,  the  English  and  Americans 
would  be  happy  to  welcome  them.  It  would  be  more  reasonable  if  you 
did  not  wait  so  long  but  met  them  half-way  now.  The  present  pope  him- 
self gave  some  advice  on  the  subject  when  saying  where  it  could  happen 
best:  ''Only  in  Austria,"  said  he,  ''can  the  death-blow  be  struck  against 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. ' '  Now,  I  wish  to  fix  your  attention  upon 
the  fact  that  there  is  scarcely  a  nation,  in  which  better  conditions  could 
be  found  for  a  successful  Baptist  mission  than  the  Czech  nation  in  Aus- 
tria. 

The  Czechs  send  107  delegates  to  Parliament,  but  only  15  of  them  are 
chosen  as  candidates  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  And  for  these  15 
the  Czechs  feel  ashamed,  as  they  are  representatives  of  the  darkest  parts 
of  the  country,  where  priests  and  brandy  govern  the  poor  Romish  sheep. 

Though  the  Czechs  have  1,100  newspapers  and  reviews,  only  a  few  of 
them  are  on  the  side  of  the  Romish  church  and  not  a  single  paper  which 
serves  the  Romish  church  is  able  to  support  itself. 

All  our  national  institutions  are  anti-Roman  Catholic,  all  our  national 
festivals  are  a  protest  against  Rome,  the  names  of  all  our  heroes  are  a 
war-cry  against  the  Romish  church. 

Every  defeat  and  scandal  that  attacks  the  Catholic  Church  in  any  for- 
eign countrv  elicits  a  joyful  response  in  our  nation.  We  rejoiced  with 
Italy  when  it  shook  off  the  yoke  of  the  pope;  we  envied  France  its  libera- 
tion from  the  monks ;  we  felt  ashamed  when  Portugal  rose  up  against 
Rome,  because  they  were  so  much  ahead  of  us;  we  look  with  jealousy 
towards  Spain,  to  see  if  it  will  not  soon  be  rid  of  our  mother-church-in- 
law. 

It  is  a  reproach  to  an  educated  Czech  to  follow  a  procession,  and  it  is 
considered  treason  against  the  national  ideals  to  follow  Romish  priests 

IS 


22U  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

in  their  political  aspirations.  Indeed,  the  best  men  of  our  nation  look  to 
see  from  which  side  the  light  will  come  to  dispel  our  darkness. 

For  this  reason  it  is  difficult  for  the  Catholic  Church  to  get  students 
enough  in  her  seminaries.  The  archbishop  of  Moravia  laments  the  want 
of  priests.  In  his  great  priest-seminary,  where  he  wishes  to  have  100 
students,  he  lately  got  only  37.  One  of  these  poor  fellows  asked  me  for 
help.  He  was  ready  to  do  anything  in  order  that  he  might  be  free.  He 
sajs  that  all  his  colleagues  are  compelled  to  become  priests  by  their 
parents  against  their  own  will,  except  two,  of  whom  he  was  not  sure  in 
this  respect.  Also  many  of  the  priests  who  are  in  the  service  of  the 
church  would  leave  her  if  they  had  another  vocation. 

In  Moravia  the  conditions  for  successful  missionary  work  are  especi- 
ally good.  Moravia,  the  first  of  all  Slav  countries,  was  converted  to 
Christianity.  Also  the  chief  forerunner  of  John  Huss  was  a  Moravian, 
Milic  of  Kromeriz  died  1374.  Of  him  the  famous  historian  Palacky  said : 
"He  stirred  the  spirit  of  the  people  to  its  depths  and  first  caused  it  to 
rise  in  those  waves  which,  at  a  later  time,  and  with  the  co-operation  of 
new  elements,  grew  to  be  the  billow  of  a  great  storm." 

Moravia  was  the  home  and  refuge  of  the  old  Baptists,  called  "Morav- 
ian Brethren, ' '  a  part  of  whom  as  I  have  found  had  the  baptism  of  be- 
lievers by  immersion. 

The  "Moravian  Church"  of  to-day  is  only  a  faint  light  of  the  old 
glory,  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  it  has  to-day  in  Moravia  no  mission 
at  all. 

Not  only  the  Congregationalists  but  also  the  Freethinkers  of  Bohemia 
cannot  get  a  footing  in  Moravia,  whereas  the  Baptists  succeed  where- 
ever  they  go.  Many  villages  are  asking  for  meetings  but  we  have  nobody 
to  send. 

The  Moravian  teachers  of  elementary  schools  numbering  6,000,  form  an 
organization  which  with  one  accord  opposes  the  Romish  church.  Now 
they  have  begun  to  publish  the  writings  of  Komensky  Comenius,  the  last 
preacher  of  the  old  Moravian  Brethren. 

The  best  known  Moravian  daily  paper,  "Pozor, "  wrote  not  long  ago 
(20-7-10)  :  "The  circumstance  that  the  offspring  of  the  Hussites  should 
leave  their  spiritual  affairs  to  be  looked  after  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  a  cruel  irony."  The  same  paper  said:  "Little  children 
should  not  be  baptized  as  they  don't  know  the  meaning  of  baptism."  It 
also  advocates  the  renewing  of  man,  the  severance  of  Church  and  State 
and  other  Baptist  principles. 

In  the  paper  of  the  young  Moravian  people,  "Mlada  Morava, "  I  read: 
"A  Czech  with  his  eyes  open  cannot  be  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  the  Czechs 
can  never  give  up  their  ideals  of  reformation. ' ' 

It  will  perhaps  not  be  oiit  of  place  here  to  add  that  I  myself  am  en- 
gaged as  the  chief  editor  of  the  most  widely  circulated  Moravian  weekly, 
and  that  in  the  same  undertaking  four  other  members  of  our  church  are 
employed.  Though  the  proprietor  is  a  Roman  Catholic  his  papers  are 
pioneers  of  a  Baptist  movement. 

The  Baptists  have  the  pioneership  in  Bohemia  as  well  as  in  Moravia. 
They  started  there  the  first  free  church  mission,  the  most  successful  mis- 
sion, the  only  mission,  which  touches  the  heart  of  our  nation  and — as 
far  as  I  can  see — the  Czechs  will  either  be  Baptists  or  they  will  turn 
atheists ! 

There  are  altogether  two  thousand  five  hundred  Bohemian,  Moravian 


Tliuisday.  June  22. J       RECORD  OF  RROVEEDiyOS.  227 

and  Slovak  Baptists;  seven  hundred  of  them  are  in  the  United  States, 
Jour  liundred  in  Russia,  one  thousand  Slovak  Baptists  are  in  Hungary 
and  the  remainder  are  in  Moldavia  and  Bohemia.  In  these  two  lands, 
numbering  together  over  seven  millions  of  inhabitants,  there  are  only 
two  Baptist  ministers!  Not  even  one  Baptist  preacher  to  three  millions 
of  people!     Does  not  that  appeal  to  you"? 

You  may  ask:  What  can  we  do  for  the  Bohemians?  This  is  our  peti- 
tion which  we  solemnly  bring  before  the  representatives  of  the  great 
Baptist  family :  Help  us  to  support  at  least  one  missionary  to  each  mil- 
lion of  the  Bohemian  people.  Help  us  to  build  a  Baptist  church  edifice 
in  the  country  of  John  Huss,  in  the  city  of  Prague,  the  capital  of  Bo- 
hemia and  help  us  to  save  from  public  sale  the  only  mission  house  that 
we  have  in  Brunn,  the  capital  of  Moravia,  the  country  of  Comenius  and 
the  cradle  of  the  Moravian  brethren  and  refuge  of  Anabaptists. 

It  is  a  modest  petition  that  we  bring  before  the  Baptist  world.  The 
disappointment  of  the  small  flock  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  which  sent 
us  with  many  prayers  to  this  Congress,  would  be  without  description  if 
our  cry  would  remain  an  empty  sound. 

We  have  in  our  country  a  tradition  that  every  nation  has  a  destina- 
tion and  that  the  destination  of  the  Bohemian  nation  is  religious.  But 
what  shape  shall  this  religion  take?  It  cannot  be  Komanism.  This  con- 
viction has  become  general.  The  whole  nation  is  coming  to  a  cross-road 
and  its  leaders  are  looking  for  a  credible  religion.  Our  nation  was  once 
in  a  similar  position  about  five  hundred  years  ago.  Then  messengers 
went  out  to  different  countries  to  see  if  there  were  a  better  religion 
somewhere  which  thej^  could  accept.  Then  the  great  Bohemian  and  Mo- 
ravian reformation  came  and  the  whole  nation  accepted  the  evangelical 
faith.  But,  it  was  robbed  of  its  treasures,  it  was  crucified  for  its  faith 
and  buried  deep  in  a  dark  grave  by  the  Jesuits.  But  lo!  after  three 
hundred  years  it  rises  again,  and  again  sends  messengers  to  other  na- 
tions. 

Last  year  eight  men  were  in  Berlin  at  the  Congress  for  Free  Christi- 
anity. I  was  with  them.  All  our  papers  reported  about  the  Congress. 
This  year  the  Baptists  sent  delegates  and  the  Bohemian  papers  will 
report  it.  We  have  five  Baptist  editors.  More  than  that:  I  represent 
here  the  very  centre  of  the  Bohemian-Moravian  movement,  which  forms 
an  organization  of  sixty  thousand  members,  all  Roman  Catholics.  Prob- 
ably in  the  year  1915  these  people  will  begin  to  leave  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  in  crowds.  It  would  not  be  wise  for  me  to  say  everything 
what  is  going  to  happen.  But  I  could  give  facts  to  every  mission  friend 
that  is  interested  which  would  convince  him  of  the  importance  of  this 
movement  and  the  great  opportunity  that  Baptists  have  just  now. 

We  must  provide  meetings  and  we  must  have  missionaries  at  least  one 
for  a  million — then  the  year  of  1915  will  be  a  blessing  not  only  to  our 
nation,  but  to  all  the  Baptists  of  the  world  and  to  the  whole  Slavonic 
race. 

There  are  many  misconceptions  of  the  freedom  in  Austria.  We  have 
freedom  enough  to  bring  to  Jesus  all  the  twenty-five  million  of  Austri- 
ans.  Our  laws  are  not  so  liberal  as  yours,  indeed,  but  they  have  one 
great  advantage  which  a  high  Austrian  Government  official  had  shown  to 
me  as  he  said:  "Every  Austrian  law  has  a  hole  in  it  and  if  you  like,  you 
can  go  through."  This  happened  some  years  ago.  Since  that  time  we 
have  experienced  that  Austrian  laws  have  not  only  holes,  but  wide  gates 


228  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE, 

in  them,  so  wide  that  our  whole  nation  could  be  converted  and  become  a 
Baptist  nation  and  go  with  flying  flags  through  these  wide  gates  and  the 
Austrian  Government  would  be  obliged  to  say:  ''Amen!" 

I  hear  showers  of  blessing  rushing  from  afar  and  I  ask,  who  will  help 
to  prepare  a  river-bed  for  them?  The  Romish  Church  fears  that  the 
Czechs  will  celebrate  the  fifth  centenary  of  the  day  when  Huss  was  burnt 
at  the  stake  by  leaving  the  church  in  crowds.  A  great  battle  is  being 
fought  in  our  country  and  many  wounded  will  be  found  in  the  streets — 
where  are  the  Samaritans  who  will  bring  them  to  meetings  and  organize 
for  them  missions  and  churches'? 

The  best  intentions  of  isolated  persons  are  useless  and  a  nation  so 
noble  as  the  Czechs  could  perish  in  darkness  if  God  did  not  awaken 
strong  and  generous  hearts  among  His  children  in  other  happier  lands, 
and  if  He  did  not  urge  upon  them  the  necessity  of  sacred  mission  work. 

As  for  me,  if  my  blood  could  be  changed  into  gold  with  which  my  fath- 
erland could  be  liberated  from  Rome  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  I  should 
be  willing  to  give  it  drop  by  drop.  I  often  thought  it  would  be  easier  to 
die  for  my  beloved  nation  as  my  forefathers  did  than  to  live  and  see  the 
Roman  tormentors  treading  the  soil  which  is  soaked  with  the  blood  of 
martyrs.  And  only  one  thought  makes  my  life  worth  living,  the  thought 
of  hope  that  the  time  is  near,  when  the  Czechs  will  stand  up  as  a  new  peo- 
ple, free  from  Rome  and  free  for  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Chairman:  Mr.  Capek  has  given  you  the  one  thing  to  carry  with  you, 
they  want  help ;  they  have  sent  here  for  help  and  we  are  here  to  give  it. 
We  are  solemn  in  it ;  we  are  not  going  to  laugh  and  cry  and  clap  now, 
we  are  going  to  help.     That  is  what  we  are  here  for. 

Hymn,  ''In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory." 

Chairman  :  I  am  going  to  ask  our  brother,  Mr.  Byf ord,  who  has  al- 
ready made  himself  so  loved  and  respected  and  honored  during  his  stay 
here  to  speak  to  you.  Mr.  Byford  is  doing  a  marvelous  work  in  Europe, 
moving  from  place  to  place,  stimulating,  inspiring,  helping,  and  direct- 
ing.    God  has  wonderfully  honored  him.    He  will  speak  on : 

THE  NEW  REFORMATION  IN  EUROPE. 

Rev.  C.  T.  Byford  was  greeted  with  applause  and  said :  Dr.  Meyer  and 
fellow-Baptists :  Throughout  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  Europe, 
from  the  far  frozen  North  southward  to  the  shores  of  the  Caspian,  from 
the  Atlantic  right  across  to  Harbin  on  the  frontier  of  Manchuria,  a  new 
sijirit  is  abroad,  a  spirit  of  inquiry,  a  spirit  of  religious  inquiry,  and  we  in 
our  own  day  and  generation  are  witnessing  a  change  in  the  religious  map 
of  Europe.  Dr.  Mai-shall  said  that  we  were  content  perhaps  just  to  paint 
the  map  of  Europe  pink  and  call  it  Christian.  I  am  not  going  to  give 
the  Baptist  color  for  Europe,  but  it  is  being  put  on  by  men  like  Capek 
and  Novotny  and  Udvarnoki  and  Fetler,  men  who  are  standing  in  lonely 
places  bearing  persecution  and  trial  and  suffering,  men  whose  names 
should  be  linked  with  Luther  and  Melancthon  and  Knox  and  Calvin. 

There  are  two  features  about  this  movement  worthy  of  our  notice. 
First,  it  is  not  confined  to  any  one  race  or  to  any  one  people;  you  cannot 


Thursday,  June  22.  J        RECOIW  OF  l>h'0('E/-:DIXGS.  229 

account  for  this  movement  by  saying  it  is  according  to  the  emotional 
temperament  of  the  Czech  or  the  Slav,  because  this  new  Reformation 
is  reaching  men  of  diverse  nationalities  and  varied  ideals.  Magyar  and 
Slovak  and  Czech  and  Ruthenian,  Bulgar  and  Serv  are  all  being  brought 
under  the  influence  of  this  great  and  new  religious  spirit. 

The  second  feature ;  I  am  not  going  to  glory  in  it  and  I  dare  not  boast 
in  it,  but  it  is  Baptist  through  and  through  and  through  again.  There 
are  other  forces  at  work,  Presbyterian  and  Methodist;  it  has  been  my 
privilege  to  visit  their  mission  stations  in  many  i^arts  of  Europe,  in 
out-of-the-way  parts  of  Europe,  but  the  man  who  teaches  baby  baptism 
has  not  very  much  of  a  chance  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Slavonic 
and  Czech  peoples.  The  origin  of  the  movement  has  already  been  touched 
upon  by  Dr.  Marsliall.  All  save  a  very  few  thousand  of  the  Baptists  in 
Europe  can  trace  their  spiritual  ancesti'y  back  to  that  magnificent  trio 
of  apostolic  laborers,  Oneken,  Lehmann,  and  Koebner,  names  honored 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe. 

But  apart  from  the  labors  of  these  three  men  it  has  been  my  great 
privilege  to  visit, — I  might  almost  use  the  word  discover, — churches 
down  in  southeastern  Europe,  Baptist  churches,  founded  by  men  who  had 
got  hold  of  a  New  Testament  and  began  to  read  it,  and  like  all  men  who 
read  the  New  Testament  without  prejudice  they  founded  Baptist 
churches.  Why,  I  know  a  church  where  the  people  waited  seventeen 
years  for  some  one  to  baptize  them.  They  sent  a  letter  over  to  Rou- 
mania  and  addressed  it,  ''To  the  church  of  strange  practices";  they  did 
not  know  the  use  of  the  word  Baptist  to  define  a  church ;  and  at  last  they 
were  driven  to  the  extremity  of  putting  an  advertisement  in  the  daily 
papers  published  in  Sophia  that  if  anyone  in  the  wide-world  believed  in 
the  baptism  of  believers  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  by  believers, 
would  they  come  to  the  help  of  the  brethren  in  Kazanlek,  and  baptize 
them  upon  profession  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

And  then  this  Baptist  movement  has  been  spread  by  a  policy  deter- 
mined by  high  civil  and  political  authorities  to  stamp  it  out.  The  Czar, — ■ 
I  do  not  speak  of  him  as  a  man,  because  I  know  you  Russian  Baptists 
are  loyal  to  the  coi'e  and  honor  your  Czar,  I  speak  of  the  system — the 
Czar  tried  to  stamp  out  the  Baptists  in  Khershon  in  the  Caucasus,  and  if 
I  may  read  you  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  according  to  a  twentieth  cen- 
tury version  it  will  read  after  this  fashion,  ''Now  they  which  were  scat- 
tered abroad  from  the  persecution  which  arose  under  Alexander  III., 
Czar  of  all  the  Russias,  went  as  far  as  Siberia  and  Trans-Caucasia,  Kur- 
destan  and  Moldavia,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria,  preaching  the  word  of 
the  Lord,  and  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with  them  and  a  great  number 
believed  and  turned  unto  the  Lord."  They  tried  to  stamp  out  the  Bap- 
tists in  Khershon,  and  they  put  twenty  thousand  Baptists  in  Siberia  as 
a  result  of  that.  They  tried  to  stamp  out  the  Baptists  in  Khershon,  and 
we  have  Baptists  in  Roumania  and  Bulgaria  as  a  result.  Klundt  founded 
a  church  in  Lompalanka,  and  is  still  tlie  pastor.  The  church  in  Roust- 
chuk  was  founded  l)y  a  Russian  exile  and  still  has  as  its  pastor  a  Rus- 


230  THE  BAPTIHT  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

sian  exile.  The  church  at  Sophia  was  founded  by  a  Russian  exile.  Here 
are  Kostromin  and  Pavloff,  Baptist  men  exiled  from  Russia,  who  have 
preached  the  gospel  to  their  people  in  Roumania.  They  were  exiled  to  a 
strange  land  and  they  took  upon  themselves  the  stamp  of  a  foreign 
friendship  in  a  foreign  land,  they  learned  to  love  the  music  of  strange 
tongues,  and  in  those  strange  tongues  proclaimed  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  to  the  winning  of  souls,  to  the  founding  of 
churches,  to  the  building  up  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

You  ask  the  secret  of  the  success  of  this  work.  First,  these  people  be- 
lieve in  prayer;  I  wish  I  could  get  you  to  their  prayer-meetings.  Sec- 
ondly, these  people  are  devoted  to  the  word  of  God,  the  word  of  the  Lord 
is  precious  unto  them.  I  have  seen  them  take  their  Bibles  from  their 
pockets  at  mid-day  and  read  their  portion;  I  have  seen  them  in  their 
hills  reading  the  word.  Thirdly,  they  are  sensitive  to  the  direction  of  the 
Holy  Spirit;  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  leads,  guides,  and  directs  them.  And 
the  fourth  feature  is  that  they  obey  the  commands  plainly  given  in  the 
New  Testament.  "Go  ye  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  does 
not  mean  to  them  a  dignified  valedictory;  it  is  interpreted  literally. 

Six  years  ago  I  was  down  in  the  Crimea  and  met  Igoff.  He  had  be€| 
in  prison  for  six  months  for  preaching  the  gospel.  He  was  brought  be- 
fore the  governor  who  said,  "Sign  this  paper  and  you  go  free:  'I,  Peter 
Igoff,  upon  receiving  my  liberty  will  promise  never  to  preach  the  her- 
etical Baptist  doctrine  again.'  "  "I  will  not  sign  it,"  he  said.  "You 
are  not  asked  to  give  up  the  faith;  you  are  simply  asked  not  to  preach 
it."  "I  cannot  sign  it;  Jesus  Christ  said,  'Go  ye  and  preach.'  "  "If 
you  don't  sign  this  paper  you  go  back  to  prison."  He  took  the  paper 
and  tore  it  up.  ' '  I  would  rather  rot  in  prison, ' '  said  he,  ' '  than  obey  the 
Czar."     (Applause.) 

Chairman  :  That  is  the  sort  of  man  that  is  going  about  Europe  stir- 
ring them  up  and  inspiring  them.  I  am  proud  of  Brother  Byf ord ;  I  wish 
I  could  talk  the  languages  he  does.  Now  we  have  with  us  one  of  our 
heroes,  one  of  our  great  heroes — "See  the  conquering  hero  come" — 
conquering  because  he  has  suffered,  conquering  by  love,  conquering 
through  blood  and  tears,  our  dear  Brother  Vasilia  Pavloff,  of  Odessa. 

Rev.  V.  Pavloff  Avas  received  enthusiastically. 


THE  CHRISTIANIZING  OF  THE  WORLD— RUSSIA. 
By  Rev.  V.  PAVLOFF. 

I  have  to  tell  about  Christianizing  of  Russia  though  I  have  only  ten 
minutes  at  my  disposal — a  time  very  short  to  give  insight  into  the  great 
work  carried  on  by  the  Russian  Baptists  in  the  space  of  forty  years. 
Therefore,  I  shall  limit  myself  with  representing  to  this  large  gathering 
only  my  share  of  labor  in  distributing  of  gospel  among  the  Russians,  since 
the  Lord  bestowed  upon  me  the  privilege  to  be  among  the  first  heralds  of 
truth  in  our  vast  empire. 


Tliursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  231 

My  home  is  the  city  of  Tiflis,  the  residence  of  Transcaucasia.  My  pa- 
rents belonged  to  Molokani,  a  sect  akin  to  the  Quakers.  Into  Tiflis  the 
Baptist  faith  was  brought  by  a  German  artisan,  Martin  Kalueit,  who  bap- 
tized the  first  Russian  convert,  a  merchant,  Nikita  Voronin ;  the  last 
gathered  a  small  congregation  of  believers  that  consisted  of  seven  or  eight 
souls  in  1870.  In  the  same  year  I  was  converted  through  the  grace  of 
God  and  joined  with  this  church.  I  was  sixteen  years  old.  Immediately 
after  my  conversion  I  began  to  witness  about  Clirist  and  had  joy  to  see 
the  first  fruit  of  my  labor  in  conversion  of  a  couple.  After  a  short  time 
the  elder  brethren  caused  me  to  preach  in  meetings. 

In  1875  I  went  to  Hamburg  in  order  to  get  more  knowledge  of  the  Word 
of  God  and  Baptist  cliurch  policy,  where  I  remained  about  a  year.  At 
that  time  there  was  only  a  missionarv  school  with  a  six  months'  course, 
but  arriving  at  Hamburg  I  found  there  no  more  school  in  that  year,  be- 
cause of  the  split  between  the  churches  of  Hamburg  and  Altoona.  It  was 
my  privilege  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  founder  of  the  German  Bap- 
tist churches,  late  Rev.  J.  G.  Oncken,  who  took  part  in  me  and  instructed 
a  preacher,  P.  Willrath,  to  give  me  lessons  in  German  and  theology.  In 
1876  I  was  ordained  by  J.  G.  Oncken  as  a  missionary  and  returned  home 
to  Tiflis. 

On  my  arrival  home  I  found  the  church  increased  in  numbers,  it  having 
40  members,  among  Avhom  my  parents  too,  who  joined  with  the  church  in 
my  absence.  At  this  time  we  enjoyed  yet  of  the  religious  liberty  and  I 
preached  gospel  to  hundreds  of  souls  that  frequented  our  congregations. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  I  made  a  long  journey  with  Br.  S.  Ro- 
dionaff  together,  in  mountains  of  Transcaucasia  as  far  as  the  Mount  of 
Ararat  and  Caspian  Sea,  baptizing  believers  and  laying  foundation  of 
many  churches  among  the  Molokani.  In  1880  I  was  even  recognized  by 
the  Government  as  Baptist  pastor.  This  freedom  we  enjoyed  until  1887. 
In  this  period  I  undertook  many  prolonged  missionary'  journeys  to  dis- 
tant governments  as  Samara,  Don,  Tourida  Mohilev  and  other  places 
where  I  also  preached  the  glad  tidings  and  baptized  many  persons  Avho 
built  a  nucleus  for  the  future  churches.  In  1884  the  known  Colonel 
Pushkoff  convened  us  to  a  congress  in  St.  Petersburg  that  aimed  to  unite 
all  believers  in  Russia  at  which  among  others  were  present  Dr.  Baedecker 
and  Lord  Ratcliff,  but  the  partakers  of  this  congress  among  Avhom  I 
was  too,  were  arrested  and  sent  out  from  the  city  home  and  a  little  later 
the  initiators  of  this  congress.  Colonel  Pashkoff  and  Count  Korf,  were 
also  sent  abroad. 

In  1887  Pobeodonoszeff  took  a  set  of  cruel  steps  to  stop  the  Baptist 
movement  and  inaugurated  an  era  of  cruel  persecutions.  In  Transcau- 
casia we  were  the  first  victims  of  his  cruel  regime,  namel}',  I,  Brother  N. 
Voronin  and  an  Armenian  pastor,  A.  Amirchanianz.  wlio  were  sen- 
tenced without  trial  to  four  years  of  banishment  to  Orenburg  for  the 
propagation  of  the  stundism.  In  March  I  and  Amirchanianz  one  day 
suddenly  were  seized  and  east  into  prison  (Brother  Voronin  was  not  at 
home),  where  we  spent  ten  days  with  common  criminals,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  intercession  of  our  friends  we  were  permitted  to  take  with  us 
our  families  and  go  into  exile  for  a  term  of  four  years  in  attendance  of  a 
policeman  on  our  expenses. 

Returning  home  from  this  exile  in  1891  I  had  been  asked  by  the  police 
to  give  pledge  not  to  preach  the  gospel  more  or  as  they  said  ''to  make  no 
sectarian  propagandism,"  which  I  decidedly  refused  to  do  for  conscience' 


232  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

sake.  After  a  short  time  I  was  again  arrested  and  cast  into  prison  with- 
out permission  even  for  my  wife  to  see  me.  I  was  soon  per  etape  without 
taking  leave  from  my  family  and  brethren.  My  way  went  from  one 
prison  to  another  about  forty  days  long;  when  were  going  we  were 
chained  in  couples  on  the  left  hands,  but  in  prison  our  chains  were  taken 
away.  I  was  to  pass  eight  prisons  till  I  arrived  at  the  place  of  my  exile, 
where  I  was  put  under  the  oversight  of  the  police,  not  having  right  to 
leave  the  city  without  permission.  My  correspondnece  was  also  under 
the  censure  of  the  police. 

I  was  sent  alone  and  my  family  came  to  me  later,  but  I  had  not  long 
time  to  live  together  with  them.  In  July,  1892,  the  Asiatic  cholera  raged 
dreadfully  in  the  city  and  bereaved  me  in  a  week  of  my  dear  wife  and 
four  children  and  one  child,  a  girl  of  twelve  years  old,  a  week  before  was 
drowned  during  bathing  in  Ural,  so  that  I  in  a  fortnight  lost  all  my  fam- 
ily, save  one  child,  a  son  of  nine  years  old,  who  lives  till  now.  This  blow 
was  the  hardest  of  all. 

As  the  soil  was  tilled  in  my  first  exile  therefore  I  could  have  more  suc- 
cess in  second  exile :  when  I  arrived  at  Orenburg,  I  baptized  at  once  four- 
teen souls,  and  during  another  four  years  of  my  remaining  in  this  city 
there  were  converted  and  baptized  through  me  and  my  co-workers  especi- 
ally in  villages  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  souls,  from  which  I  organ- 
ized three  churches  and  ordained  the  three  presbyters  at  taking  leave  of 
them  and  the  city.  I  Avas  challenged  to  public  disputation  with  Orthodox 
Missionary  M.  Golovkin  on  religious  subjects  in  the  seminary  and  ortho- 
dox churches,  so  that  on  these  disputations  with  me  were  present  priests, 
seminan^  l^upils  and  other  people,  oftentimes  three  hundred  persons,  so 
that  these  disputations  roused  a  spirit  of  searching  in  religous  questions. 

At  the  end  of  my  second  exile  I  received  a  call  from  the  Russo-German 
church  in  Tultsha  (Tulcea)  in  Roumania  to  be  their  pastor  and  I  ac- 
cepted this  call  and  went  to  Roumania,  because  the  persecution  in  Russia 
Avas  yet  in  full  vigor.  I  spent  there  about  six  years,  visiting  sometimes 
also  Bulgaria.  My  work  there  was  blessed  through  converting  of  sixty 
souls.  I  had  opportunity  to  show  hospitality  and  help  to  many  perse- 
cuted brethren  that  passed  over  the  frontier. 

When  the  persecution  in  Russia  a  little  abated  the  church  at  Tiflis  in- 
vited me  again  to  return  home  and  I  followed  this  call  and  came 
back  to  Russia  in  1901. 

About  six  years  worked  I  in  Tiflis,  where  I  found  the  church  divided, 
but  after  much  labor  I  had  joy  to  see  them  united  in  one  body. 

In  1907  was  founded  a  mission  society  over  which  I  presided  three 
years,  but  as  the  hoped  freedom  was  not  realized  and  we  could  not  get 
legal  permission  to  its  existence,  so  we  were  compelled  to  abandon  this 
name.  This  society  engaged  every  year  from  twenty  to  twenty-six  mis- 
sionaries who  preached  gospel  and  spent  for  this  purpose  more  than 
$4,000.  We  availed  ourselves  also  of  the  granted  liberty  and  arranged 
large  public  evangelization  meetings  in  theaters,  auditoriums,  tea-houses 
and  other  public  houses  in  several  large  cities.  Our  last  congress  in  St. 
Petersburg  promoted  our  cause  and  made  it  known  in  large  circles. 

Brother  W.  Fetler's  work  in  the  city  of  St.  Petersburg  is  a  great  ad- 
vance in  our  movement  because  till  recent  time  in  the  residence  of  Czar 
was  no  native  Russian  church,  though  there  was  a  German  one;  now  this 
gulf  is  filled  and  we  wish  a  God  speed  to  Brother  Fetler's  work  and  re- 
commend heartily  to  help  him  in  completing  of  the  prayer  house  that  he 


Tliursday.  Juno  22.]       RECOIil)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  233 

is  building'  now  for  iu  lack  oi'  a  i)roper  place  of  -n-orship  for  large  congre- 
gations the  work  cannot  advance. 

At  present  time  I  am  working  in  Odessa,  a  large,  beautiful  city  in 
Soath  Russia  with  half  a  million  of  inhabitants,  where  I  c^ime  in  1907. 
I  preach  in  a  large  hired  prayer-hall  that  seats  seven  hundred  and  sixty 
persons.  Our  gatherings  are  always  crowded,  especially  Sunday  even- 
ings. During  my  activity  here  in  space  of  three  years  were  added  to  the 
church  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  souls  through  the  baptism.  The  last 
year  rose  many  stations  in  the  vicinity  of  Odessa  as  in  Nicalaeff,  Tiras- 
pole,  Bendery  and  Kishenev.  Among  the  converted  there  are  two  nurses 
who  formerly  served  in  a  hospital  but  were  discharged  for  their  witness 
about  Christ.  They  are  now  working  as  deaconesses  on  their  own  will  and 
have  access  to  noble  families.  We  have  here  three  Russian,  one  Ger- 
man and  one  Jewish-Christian  congregations  of  the  baptized  Christians. 

I  am  also  editor  of  the  weekly  Christian  magazine  "The  Baptist,"  that 
is  the  official  organ  of  our  denomination.  I  could  not  discharge  all  my 
duties  if  I  had  not  an  excellent  assistant  in  the  person  of  a  young  man, 
Brother  M.  Timoshenks.  I  labor  on  the  edition  of  this  paper  without 
capital  and  wages  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  carry  on  this  work  that  gives 
till  now  deficit. 

Concerning  the  religious  liberty,  I  have  to  say  that  it  is  yet  very  lim- 
ited, though  we  are  in  better  condition  than  before  the  revolution".  "We 
can  now  print  our  own  literature  and  permitted  services  are  not  dis- 
solved. But  the  Minister  of  Interiors  defends  very  carefully  the  estab- 
lished church  and  enacts  circulars  that  do  very  considerably  limit  our 
rights.  Recently  he  published  regulations  that  forbid  the  services  in  the 
open  air  and  all  processions,  save  funerals,  that  means  our  baptisms ; 
further  the  Sunday-schools  and  young  men's  associations  are  forbidden 
without  special  permission ;  the  last  can  be  permitted  on  the  condition 
that  no  orthodox  youth  shall  take  part  in  the  gatherings  of  our  youth, 
neither  the  children  of  our  believing  parents  when  they  are  registered  as 
orthodox  and  are  above  fourteen  years  old. 

In  many  places  our  members  are  beaten  and  their  gatherings  are  dis- 
solved by  mob,  as  for  instance,  in  Siberia  a  mob  entered  the  house  of  one 
brother  where  was  a  prayer-meeting,  dissolved  it  by  gun-firing  and  tried 
to  kill  him.  Another  occasion  occurred  in  Batalpashinsk,  the  Province 
of  Kuban,  where  the  mob  prevented  the  burial  of  the  Baptist  preacher, 
Yourtshenko,  who  died  soon  after  the  attack  on  him  by  a  mob,  Avhile  he 
was  preaching  in  the  meeting.  The  brethren  were  compelled  to  carry  off 
his  corpse  ten  miles  away  in  order  to  bury  it.  It  was  buried  on  the 
estate  of  our  Brother  V.  Mamontoff. 

I  will  close  my  account  with  representing  before  this  congress  our  most 
urgent  needs,  which  are  as  follows:  (1)  We  must  have  a  college  for  ed- 
ucation of  our  preachers,  but  under  the  present  conditions  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  establish  it  in  our  countn-. 

(2)  Our  second  need  is:  We  want  prayer-houses  and  have  no  means 
to  erect  them,  therefore  shall  be  raised  a  fund  for  this  piirpose. 

(.S)  We  must  have  a  publication  society  for  creating  and  distributing 
of  our  denominational  literature.  We  have  already  a  publication  com- 
mittee and  I  am  the  secretary  of  it.  but  we  have  still  no  means  and  we 
begin  to  raise  money  for  this  purpose. 

Shall  I  say  in  conclusion,  that  our  country  is  an  immense  missionary 


234  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

field  consisting  of  all  men  from  the  nominal  Christians  to  the  Buddhists, 
Mohammedans,  and  heathens? 

We  look  at  our  trans-Atlantic  and  English  brethren  for  help  in  our 
warfare  for  Christ's  cause.  We  cry  as  once  did  the  Macedonian  in 
Paul's  vision:  "Come  over  and  help  us!" 

Chairman  :  Now  we  are  going  to  have  an  introduction  of  the  Russian 
exiles  by  our  friend  who  has  been  too  silent  all  this  time — I  am  so  glad 
I  am  going  to  unlock  his  voice  for  you — Mr.  Shakespeare. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Shakespeare  was  received  with  three  cheers  and  the  Chau- 
tauqua salute  and  said :  Mr.  President  and  dear  friends,  our  remark- 
able gathering  this  morning  is  partly  a  result  of  the  new  Russian  lib- 
erty, not  complete  but  yet  a  beginning,  which  was  given  in  1905.  It  is 
inevitable  that  we  should  look  back  upon  the  bitter  persecution  of  the 
Baptists  like  a  nightmare  horror  and  an  evil  dream,  but  I  do  not  intend 
this  morning  to  say  one  word  which  could  wound  the  feelings  of  any  pa- 
triotic Russian.  As  an  Englishman  I  rejoice  in  the  better  understand- 
ing and  the  more  cordial  feeling  which  now  exist  between  England  and 
Russia.  But  it  is  my  privilege-^a  task  long-waited-for  and  long-desired 
— to  present  to  this  assembly  the  delegates,  and  especially  the  exiles  from 
the  east  of  Europe.  At  this  family  reunion  there  gather  the  brethren 
and  sisters  from  many  lands;  sitting  down  at  this  tabic  are  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  wise  and  the  unlearned,  the  young  and  the  old.  Some  of 
the  children  who  went  out  from  the  old  home  to  far-distant  colonies 
have  become  very  prosperous;  others  come  from  the  mission  fields  of  In- 
dia and  China;  here  is  our  big  American  brother  smiling  upon  us  all.  All 
are  welcome  but  surely  the  one  to  whom  we  turn  most  tenderly  is  this 
child  of  many  prayers,  this  child  of  faith,  this  little  one  with  the  mys- 
tical look  of  suffering  in  his  eye  and  who  we  feared  might  not  be  here 
at  all.  We  are  welcoming  the  Baptist  suffering  church,  it  is  the  breath 
of  the  hills  and  the  sea  sweeping  over  the  Congress. 

We  had  thought  perhaps  that  the  days  of  heroism  had  gone  by,  that 
men  do  not  believe  so  much  or  so  passionately  as  when  Luther  stood  be- 
fore the  Diet  of  Worms,  or  the  fires  were  lit  at  Smithfield ;  but  lo,  these 
days  have  come  back  again.  We  read  that  at  the  assembly  of  Nicaea  by 
far  the  larger  part  of  the  assembly  ''Had  lived  through  the  last  and  the 
worst  of  the  persecution,  and  they  came  like  a  regiment  out  of  some 
frightful  siege  or  battle,  decimated  or  mutilated  by  the  tortures  or  the 
hardships  they  had  undergone."  The  younger  delegates  looked  with  pe- 
culiar awe  and  reverence  on  those  who  had  lost  an  eye,  or  whose  backs 
bore  the  marks  of  cruel  scourgings,  or  who  had  been  hamstrung  to  pre- 
vent them  escaping  from  the  mines.  This  is  our  Nicaea  and  we  praise 
God  that  he  has  brought  to  encourage  our  faith  men  and  women  who 
have  clung  desperately  to  the  banner  of  liberty  and  would  not  let  it  go, 
and  who  now  look  with  dimmed  eyes  for  the  first  time  upon  the  Baptist 
brotherhood  in  this  land  of  freedom. 

I  need  not  recount  the  storv  of  how  we  got  them  here.    It  would  read 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  235 

like  a  romance.  First  of  all  it  was  made  possible  by  your  generosity  of 
a  year  ago.  Most  of  them  are  very  poor  and  could  not  have  come  unless 
you  had  paid  their  passage.  All  over  Europe  the  message  of  your  broth- 
erly kindness  has  carried  profound  encouragement.  A  German  pastor 
in  a  recent  letter  has  expressed  the  common  feeling.  ''It  is  no  small 
thing,"  he  wrote,  "to  receive  so  much  money,  but  it  is  also  not  a  small 
thing  not  to  accept  it.  This  also  must  be  experienced.  The  words  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  remain  true :  '  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. ' 
But  I  knelt  down  before  my  Lord  and  thanked  him  heartily  for  this  pres- 
ent and  asked  him  for  more  faithfulness  and  devotion  for  him  and  his 
service."  Yet  very  soon  in  the  work  of  God  we  discover  that  money  is 
not  everything.  Difficulties  began  to  accumulate.  It  seemed  impossible 
to  get  the  Russian  brethren  out  of  the  counti-y.  After  your  generosity 
I  felt  that  they  must  come  or  I  must  stay  away. 

The  apostolic  Fetler  was  charged  with  preaching  in  Moscow  two  years 
ago.  Through  prayer,  bail  was  granted  for  $2,750.00.  In  the  name  of 
the  Alliance  I  at  once  sent  the  money  and  received  a  telegram  next  day 
to  the  effect,  ''Across  the  frontier."  Two  hours  later  a  second  charge 
was  issued  against  him  but  it  was  too  late.  The  heroic  Pavloff,  of  Odes- 
sa, wrote  to  me  on  the  eve  of  the  Congress  that  he  was  summoned  to  an- 
swer a  charge  before  a  Judge  but  he  added,  "I  think  that  the  Lord  in- 
tends me  to  be  at  Philadelphia."  The  next  day  came  the  telegram  to 
the  effect,  "Across  the  frontier,"  from  which  it  is  clear  that  the  Lord 
helps  those  that  help  themselves. 

I  need  not  pursue  the  stoiy  of  how  at  last  in  desperation  I  sent  Mr. 
Byford  to  fetch  the  others  and  of  how  he  did  not  change  his  clothing 
for  seven  days  or  nights,  or  of  how  he  lived  for  more  than  a  week  upon 
black  bread.  You  will  find  it  all  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles— some  on 
boards  and  some  on  broken  pieces  of  the  ship  they  all  got  safely  to  Phil- 
adelphia. ^  They  come  from  the  southeast  of  Europe,  some  of  them  from 
Austria  like  Novotny  and  Capek,  and  from  Hungary  like  Udvarnoki. 
They  come  from  those  interesting  and  inflammable  countries.  But  most 
of  them  come  from  Russia,  that  great  and  wonderful  country  with  its 
strange  and  mighty  contrasts.  In  its  eighty  million  peasants  who  can- 
not read  or  write,  it  is  in  the  thirteenth  century,  a  century  in  which  we 
are  told  that  ritual  Avas  never  so  complete  and  gorgeous,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people  never  so  miserable.  In  its  ecclesiastical  system  it  is  in 
the  sixteenth  century  and  the  age  of  Wycliffe  and  Laud.  In  its  Czar 
and  statesmen  it  is  in  the  nineteenth  century.  This  land  of  mystery, 
linked  with  the  West  by  political  alliances  and  to  the  East  by  origin  and 
blood,  with  one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  most  devout  monarchs  of 
the  world  upon  its  throne,  with  intending  prelates  who  are  trying  to  put 
back  the  clock  of  the  world,  with  its  mingling  of  barbaric  splendor  and 
advanced  civilization  like  its  own  great  rulers  in  the  past,  Peter  and 
Catharine,  this  mighty  empire  taking  as  its  symbol  the  Russian  bear  with 
vast  and  slow  moving  strength,  which  has  produced  a  modern  prophet 
and  world  thinker,  this  holy  Russia  capable  of  such  sacrifice,  such  hero- 


236  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

ism  and  endurance,  with  mystical  and  fatalistic  outlook  ui^on  the  uni- 
verse— what  may  it  not  become? 

You  children  of  Russia,  who  have  done  and  suffered  so  much,  we  hail 
you.  You  carry  in  your  breasts  the  love  and  the  hope  of  your  father- 
land. How  we  look  forward  to  the  day  when  your  names  shall  be  re- 
membered as  we  to-day  remember  the  name  of  Bunyan  and  Cromwell 
and  Roger  Williams.  We  hail  you.  "Peace  be  within  your  walls  and 
prosperity  within  your  palaces.  For  my  brethren  and  companions'  sake 
I  say.  Peace  be  to  you."  For  the  sake  of  the  hosts  of  the  Lord  our  God 
we  wish  you  good. 

Mazzini,  the  emancipator  of  Italy  said:  ''If  anyone  shows  me  a  good 
man  I  say,  How  many  souls  has  he  saved  ?  And  if  anyone  shows  me  a  re- 
ligious nation,  I  ask,  What  has  it  done  to  bring  others  to  its  faith?" 
I  present  to  this  assembly  this  morning  the  men  who  like  the  apostle 
have  been  in  prisons  oft,  they  have  in  these  last  days  been  a  spectacle 
to  angels  and  to  men,  they  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things, — some  of 
them  have  been  in  the  inner  prisons  and  yet  have  sung  praises  to  God, 
they  have  marched  in  convict  gangs  to  Siberia,  they  have  left  wife  and 
children  behind  on  their  Via  Dolorosa. 

How  many  have  they  saved?  I  cannot  tell  you.  One  has  baptized 
more  than  a  thousand  Cossacks  in  far  Astrakhan,  another  preached  in 
chains  to  his  fellow-convicts,  another  ministers  to  more  than  eight  thou- 
sand Baptists  in  Siberia.  The  end  is  not  yet.  The  price  has  yet  to  be 
paid.  Only  by  suffering  can  Russia  find  salvation.  The  progress  of  the 
world  is  always  over  the  mangled  frames  and  bleeding  bodies  of  the  mar- 
tyrs and  the  heroes.  Freedom,  liberty  of  conscience,  the  faith  of  Christ, 
these  must  be  won  by  tears  and  blood.  But  when  Russia  becomes  the 
most  Baptist  country  of  the  world,  outside  America,  it  will  mark  a  turn- 
ing point  in  the  histor,y  of  Europe. 

We  to-day  through  this  great  Alliance  say  with  profound  respect  to 
His  Majesty  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias,  ''Don't  fear  the  Baptists;  in 
every  country  in  the  world  they  are  the  most  loyal  subjects."  Our 
president.  Dr.  Clifford,  has  somewhere  at  the  back  of  his  brain  a  repub- 
lican theory  but  I  have  noticed  through  his  career  a  strange  and  senti- 
mental attachment  and  reverence  to  the  throne.  We  say  to  the  states- 
men and  rulers  of  Europe:  "Don't  be  afraid  of  the  Baptists;  if  you 
want  a  sober,  temperate,  industrious  people  here  they  are."  We  say  to 
the  prelates  and  to  the  priests  of  Russia:  "Don't  be  afraid  of  the  Bap- 
tists; we  know  them  better  than  anybody  and  we  know  they  are  the  best 
people  there  are;  we  are  the  only  people  that  have  kept  true  to  immer- 
sion like  you  have  from  the  days  of  the  apostles,  and  their  faith  and 
courage  and  zeal  will  quicken  and  stimulate  the  faith  and  the  zeal  of 
your  flag." 

Ye  fearful  saints,  fresh  courage  take, 

The  clouds  ye  so  much  dread 
Are  big  with  mercy  and  will  break 

In  blessings  on  your  head.  (Applause.) 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  237 

At  this  poiut  the  Russian  delegates  were  introduced  individually  by 
Mr.  Shakespeare,  each  one  coming  to  the  platform  and  shaking  hands 
with  the  president,  Dr.  Clifford,  and  wnth  Mr.  Meyer.  Below  appear  the 
names  of  those  presented,  together  with  the  information  given  by  Mr. 
Shakespeare. 

William  Fetler.  He  is  our  leader  and  worker  in  St.  Petersburg,  and 
upon  him  more  than  upon  any  other  man  in  that  part  of  Russia  the  fu- 
ture of  the  Baptists  depends.  He  is  building  a  church  in  St.  Petersburg 
which  has  upon  it  a  debt  of  forty-five  thousand  dollars,  and  we  want 
you  pastors  and  deacons  to  give  him  the  opportunity  of  pleading  his 
cause  in  your  churches  before  he  leaves  America. 

NoRBEET  F.  Capek,  of  Brunn,  Moravia. 

Joseph  'Novotny,  of  Prague,  Bohemia. 

We  want  you  to  do  the  same  for  Capek  and  Novotny;  you  have  heard 
something  of  the  story  this  morning  and  we  want  you  to  open  the 
churches  for  them  and  for  their  appeal.  Without  you  and  without  the 
Alliance  they  have  not  a  friend  in  the  world. 

Rev.  Peter  Doycheff  and  Mrs.  Doycheff,  of  Tchirpan,  Bulgaria.  These 
friends  are  working  in  Bulgaria  and  they  have  been  stoned  and  beaten 
more  times  than  we  can  tell  you. 

Simon  Stepakoff.  For  ten  years  after  his  conversion  he  was  hunted 
from  place  to  place.  He  has  been  many  times  in  prison.  He  has  baptized 
more  than  a  thousand  Cossacks  in  Astrakhan.  He  has  had  five  years  in 
Siberia  and  the  police  threaten  to  send  him  to  Siberia  again  if  he  does 
not  stop  preaching. 

.  Madam  Yasnovsky,  of  St.  Petersburg.  The  daughter  of  a  Russian 
baron ;  brought  up  in  a  wealthy  home,  converted  under  Lord  Radstock, 
she  works  in  Russian  society  for  the  prevention  of  the  white  slave  traf- 
fic. She  is  now  treasurer  of  Mr.  Fetler 's  work  in  St.  Petersburg.  She 
has  given  up  everything  for  Christ  and  the  Baptists. 

Rfev.  Vasilia  Pavloff  and  Mrs.  Pavloff,  of  Odessa. 

J.  RoTRMAYER,  of  Hungary.  One  of  the  first  Baptists  baptized  in  Hun- 
gary and  a  pioneer  Baptist  in  Roumania  and  Bulgaria;  has  suffered 
scourgings  and  stripes. 

Jacob  Yince.  For  six  years  minister  of  the  church  in  Samara.  Spent 
last  November  in  prison.  Baptized  more  than  fifty  during  his  prison 
pastorate.  Five  Aveeks  ago  he  was  fined  300  roubles  ($150),  or  three 
months  imprisonment  for  baptizing  eight  people.  On  his  return  he  must 
pay  the  fine  or  go  to  prison. 

Paul  Datsko.  His  mother  has  been  in  prison  for  her  faith  and  he 
has  spent  three  months  in  jail  for  preaching  in  Kharkoff.  He  has  bap- 
tized believers  in  the  forest  at  midnight. 

Balicxhin.  He  was  in  prison  for  a  term  for  preaching.  Since  then 
he  has  been  free  from  persecution  and  has  baptized  more  than  fifteen 
hundred  converts,  generally  in  the  dead  of  night. 

Zanovit  Pavliekko.  Converted  nine  years  ago  and  baptized  shortly 
afterwards;  has  been  cut  off  from  his  family;  four  times  he  has  been 


238  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

called  before  the  magistrates  for  preaching.  On  his  return  to  Russia  he 
"will  be  stationed  at  Nieholaieff,  with  a  church  of  one  hundi-ed  and 
twenty  members. 

Evan  Savelieff.  Born  in  1858;  belonged  to  the  Molokans.  In  1894 
he  was  exiled  for  five  years  and  the  year  after  his  release,  in  1900,  he 
was  exiled  again  till  1904.  Has  been  in  prison  many  times  and  on  his 
return  is  going  to  be  tried  again.  Since  1904  he  has  been  the  pastor  of 
the  church  in  Vladikasvas. 

Andreas  Erstratenko.  He  began  as  a  Greek  Orthodox,  a  terrible 
persecutor  of  the  Baptists  and  a  blind  partisan  in  the  State  Church.  He 
was  converted  under  Ivanoff  in  1890.  He  has  spent  two  years  in  prison 
and  has  been  beaten  and  scourged  often.  He  is  a  pioneer  Baptist  in 
Siberia  where  he  has  baptized  more  than  two  thousand,  often  cutting  a 
hole  in  the  ice  to  do  it.  Has  been  fined  from  twenty  to  forty  roubles 
weekly  until  he  was  absolutely  penniless.  He  has  six  thousand  church 
members  in  his  pastoral  district. 

Varsilia  Ivanoff.  Born  in  the  Baku  Caucasus  in  1848 ;  converted  and 
baptized  in  1870;  has  been  twice  in  exile,  chained  to  robbers  in  the 
criminal  gang;  has  been  thirty-one  times  in  prison  and  had  to  work  on 
the  tread-mill ;  has  baptized  more  than  eighty-six  people  at  one  time ;  has 
baptized  more  than  one  thousand  five  hundred  people. 

Leoochkin.  Was  sent  into  exile  in  1891  by  the  Minister  of  Order 
without  trial.  Eight  years  in  exile.  Has  been  under  police  supervision 
since  his  return ;  has  to  stand  trial  when  he  gets  back  again. 

li^EODOR  KosTROMiN.  He  is  a  Cossack.  He  fought  against  the  Turks 
in  the  Crimean  War.  He  was  banished  to  Trans-Caucasia  and  put  in 
chains.  Was  sixteen  years  in  exile.  Is  sixty-five  years  of  age.  Has  been 
beaten  and  scourged  for  adherence  to  his  faith.  Spent  nine  years  in 
prison  without  seeing  his  wife  or  children ;  his  projDertj^  was  confiscated 
and  his  family  scattered,  and  for  nine  years  he  did  not  know  where  they 
were.  Every  morning  he  was  brought  before  the  Chief  of  Police.  At 
last  when  his  life  was  despaired  of,  he  was  released  and  he  went  to  Rou- 
mania  and  afterwards  to  Bulgaria.  During  his  first  imprisonment  more 
than  fifty  criminals  were  converted  through  him.  Has  been  in  prison 
most  of  his  working  life.     Has  baptized  more  than  a  thousand  converts. 

Rev.  Mr.  Golayeff,  president  of  the  Russian  Baptist  Union,  and  one 
of  the  great  leaders. 

Mr.  Stepanoff,  secretary  of  the  Russian  National  Union. 

Mr.  Podin,  who  is  permitted  for  some  inscrutable  reason  to  go  about 
the  Russian  Empire  preaching  in  the  prisons.  Is  preaching  to  tens  of 
thousands  of  Russian  prisoners. 

Mr.  Skorodaroff. 

Mr.  Obolaivitch. 

Mr.  Rudienko. 

Mr.  Homiac. 

Mr.  Kuchnireff. 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  rROCEEDIXGS.  239 

The  delegates  showed  the  greatest  enthusiasm  as  the  above  were  sev- 
erally introduced. 

Hymn,  **Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross?" 

Chairman  :  Our  dear  brother  is  going  to  speak  to  you,  to  whom  all  of 
us  owes  so  much,  a  brother  Avho  has  made  himself  dear  to  you  already, 
Vining,  of  Ontario, 


A  BAPTIST  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  EUROPE. 
By  Rev.  A.  J.  VINING. 

Mr.  President,  Fathers  and  Brethren  : 

What  a  great  day!  What  a  great  hour!  Perhaps  never  before  have 
so  many  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  gazed  at  one  time  into  the  faces  of 
such  a  great  company  of  Christians,  who  for  theii'  faith  have  suffered 
''trial  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings,  yea  moreover  of  bonds  and  im- 
prisonment. ' ' 

The  hot  fires  of  righteous  indignation  have  dried  our  moistened  eyes 
as  Ave  have  looked  with  admiration  and  affection  upon  the  bent  forms 
and  weather-beaten  faces  of  these  men  who  have  grown  prematurely  old 
in  an  unequal  combat  for  their  religious  rights.  We  have  seen  them  on 
the  eve  of  their  departure  for  a  land  of  loneliness  and  sorrow,  kneeling, 
for  the  last  time,  in  worship  with  their  loved  ones.  We  have  seen  their 
agony  of  soul  as  heartless  despots  have  broken  the  embrace  in  which  they 
were  held  by  loving  hands.  We  have  seen  them  compelled  to  leave  the 
sunshine  of  their  homes  for  the  darkness  of  some  far-away,  vermin-in- 
fested, Siberian  dungeon.  We  have  seen  them  scourged  along  the  path- 
way with  criminals,  and  finally  consigned 

"To  fetters,  and  the  damp  vault's  dayless  gloom." 

We  have  followed  these  men,  insulted,  goaded,  buffeted,  flogged,  bleed- 
ing, moaning,  along  the  storm-swept  pathway  to  that  prison-hell  a  thou- 
sand miles  from  home ! 

Over  the  plains  of  Siberia,  over  the  steppes  of  Eussia,  over  the  waves 
of  the  Atlantic,  we  have  heard  the  soothing  notes  of  the  song  Hope  sang 
to  them  of  a  better  day.  We  have  seen  Faith  holding  before  them  in  one 
hand  a  picture  of  the  One  who  fought  in  the  darkness  of  Gethsemane; 
and  with  the  other  hand  holding  out  to  them  the  sword  of  the  Lord.  We 
have  seen  them  in  their  awful  combat  with  the  dragon  of  Despair.  We 
have  seen  their  glorious  triumph !  We  have  seen  the  storm-cloud  lift, 
and  on  the  mountain-peaks  that  mighty  company  of  the  angels  of  Je- 
hovah who  fought,  unseen,  against  the  enemies  of  the  chosen  of  the 
Lord.     0  day  of  victory,  all  hail!  all  hail! 

What  a  conflict  has  been  waging  in  the  heart  of  every  freeman  here 
to-day!  How  we  have  hated  the  chains  with  wliich  our  beloved  hero* 
brothers  were  bound !  How  we  have  hated  that  knout  with  which  their 
sears  w^ere  made!  And  yet,  every  lover  of  righteousness  here  this  hour, 
would  be  glad  to  kiss  the  chains  that  held  these  men  in  bondage.  The 
very  lash  that  left  long,  deep,  gory,  ridges  in  their  quivering  flesh,  we 


240  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

could  press  to  our  lips,  because  the  knout  and  the  chains  link  members 
of  this  Congress  with  those  Christian  worthies  who  suffered  and  died  like 
heroes,  in  the  days  of  Nero  and  Diocletian.  As  we  look  into  these  strong 
faces  we  almost  envy  our  brethren  who  have  been  counted  worthy  to 
bear  in  their  bodies  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Sir,  we  stand  to-day 
in  the  presence  of  men  who  can,  with  an  understanding  sympathy,  clasp 
hands  across  the  centuries,  with  that  apostle  who  could  say,  "five  times 
received  I  forty  stripes,  save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once 
was  I  stoned." 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  angels  who  comforted  these  men  in  their  lone- 
liness when  weary,  winding  leagues  stretched  between  them  and  home 
and  loved  ones, — the  angels  who  solaced  them  when  suffering  from  cold 
and  hunger  and  buffetings,  have  gathered  with  us  here  to-day.  The  an- 
gels who  heard  their  cries,  and  the  wailings  of  their  wives  and  children 
are  listening  to  the  hallelujahs  of  oiu*  hearts  this  hour.  Strike  all  youi 
harps  of  gold,  ye  invisible  host  of  the  most  High  God,  for  these  who  have 
come  up  through  Russian  tribulation,  have  won  for  the  cause  of  right- 
eousness, the  sympathy  and  love  and  co-operation  of  millions  who  know 
the  full  meaning  of  liberty.  Chant,  ye  messengers  of  the  God  of  Jacob; 
chant,  chant  your  sublimest  songs  of  victory,  for  the  faithful  of  the 
Lord  have  come  to  their  hour  of  triumph ! 

When  the  old  warrior  returns  from  the  field  of  battle,  he  is  received 
by  his  fellow-countrymen  with  flying  banners  and  blare  of  trumpets  and 
loud  huzzas.  Sometimes  these  high  honors  are  given  to  unworthy  men 
who  have  fought  for  an  unworthy  cause.  But  to-day  we  honor  worthy 
men,  each  of  whom  has  shed  red,  manly  blood  which  in  God's  sight  out- 
weighs all  the  waves  of  the  ocean !  We  honor  ourselves  as  we  recall  the 
deeds  of  men  who  have  achieved  victory  for  a  King  whose  banner  we 
gladly  hang  high  above  all  other  banners.  They  have  fought  for  soul- 
liberty,  a  principle  for  which  Baptists  have  contended  ever  since  the  first 
religious  tyrant  fettered  the  souls  of  men,  down  to  the  efforts  of  the  last 
ecclesiastical  dictator,  who,  by  his  encyclical,  attempts  to  bind  thinking 
men  in  mediaeval  darkness. 

Few  of  us  are  able  to  understand  the  language  of  their  lips.  But  we 
know  the  language  of  their  hearts  and  the  language  of  their  scars.  These 
speak  to  us  to-day  in  words  more  eloquent  than  those  which  poet  ever 
sung  or  with  which  orator  ever  charmed  his  hearers !  They  speak  to  us 
of  multitudes  who  are  praying,  struggling,  climbing,  up  the  rocky 
mist}'  way  to  the  sunlit  heights,  where  bloom  the  flowers  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace  and  joy;  and  from  which  the  fountain  of  Christian  free- 
dom pours  in  a  living  stream.  They  speak  to  us  of  millions  who  call 
loudly  for  men  to  guide  them  to  the  mountain-peak  of  Truth.  They 
plead, — these  patient  veterans  of  Jesus  Christ, — for  millions  who  wait 
for  the  coming  of  the  trained  evangelist,  and  the  pastor  who  is  "apt  to 
teach."  Must  these  men  call  in  vain?  Shall  we  not  gladly  answer  their 
appeal?  There  is  one  Avay  in  which  their  pleadings  may  be  answered,— 
a  way  in  which  every  man  here  may  make  himself  heard.  Establish  a 
great  cosmopolitan  Theological  Seminary  in  the  heart  of  Europe!  Make 
it  possible  for  the  young  Baptist  men  of  the  different  countries  of  Eu- 
rope to  receive  training  that  will  qualify  them  to  take  the  continent  for 
Him  who  is  worthy  "to  receive  glory  and  honor  and  power."  Give  the 
peoples,  whose  representatives  these  men  are,  a  training  school,  in  which 
young  Baptist  ministers  may  receive  help  that  will  fit  them  for  leader- 


Tlniisday,  June  22. J       KECOJW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  241 

ship,  and  in  this  liall  are  hundreds  who  will  live  to  see  Europe  a  great 
Protestant,  Christian  Continent,  and  Russia  the  mightiest  Baptist  strong- 
hold on  earth. 

These  scarred  and  battered  old  men  plead  with  us  to-day.  But  there 
are  millions  far  away,  whose  faces  we  shall  never  see,  who  also  plead. 
They  plead  and  wait  and  listen  for  the  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  of  a  great 
army  of  evangelists  and  pastors,  thoroughly  equipped  in  head  and  heart 
to  make  Christ  known  to  all  the  jjeoples  of  Europe,  from  the  latest  re- 
public on  the  West,  to  the  borders  of  Siberia  on  the  East;  and  from  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  northward  to  the  last  settler  in  Eurojae. 

Without  an  educational  institution,  they  must  wait  and  listen  in  vain. 
We  know  what  the  seminary  has  done  for  our  beloved  denomination  in 
Germany  and  in  Sweden.  We  know  what  the  college  and  the  seminary 
have  done  for  our  work  in  Great  Britain  and  in  North  America.  These 
are,  perhaps,  our  most  valuable  denominational  assets.  Is  it  enough,  I 
ask,  that  Great  Britain  and  North  America  and  Germany  and  Sweden 
shall  continue  to  send  out  trained  preachers  into  their  respective  eou- 
stituencies"?  Shall  we  refuse  help  to  these  other  countries  which  plead  now 
so  loudl,y  for  well-equipped  pastors  and  evangelists'?  Shall  no  provision 
be  made  for  Russia,  with  a  population  equal  to  the  combined  populations 
of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  the 
United  States  of  America  and  Canada?  What  an  educated,  consecrated, 
ministry  has  done  for  America  and  Great  Britain,  for  Sweden  and  Ger- 
many, an  educated,  consecrated  ministry  can  do  for  every  country  in 
Europe.  Then,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  have  been  beaten  and  buffeted; 
for  the  sake  of  those  who  wait  in  lonely  exile  in  the  frozen  North,  let  us 
take  united  action.  And  for  the  sake  of  Him  who,  when  He  remembered 
the  needs  of  men  cried  out  "we  must  woi'k  the  works  of  Him  who  sent 
me  while  it  is  day,  for  the  night  cometh  wherein  no  man  can  work, ' '  let  us 
ACT  TO-DAY \  Let  these  men  sleep  to-night,  with  their  poor,tired,  ach- 
ing heads  resting  on  downy,  gold-embroidered  pillow  of  Baptist  pledges ! 
Let  these  veterans  from  the  dungeons  of  the  Caucasus  fall  asleep  to-night 
solaced  by  the  thought  of  a  great  company  of  angels  bearing  home  the 
good  news  to  our  martyred  brethren  before  the  throne.  Men  of  the 
North,  men  of  the  South,  men  of  the  East  and  men  of  the  West,  kindle 
a  fire  of  hope  on  every  mountain-peak  in  Europe  to-day !  Send  the  good 
news  to  millions  of  waiting,  watching,  people,  that  we  have  this  day 
decided  to  establish  without  delay,  a  training  school  for  the  Baptists  of 
Europe. 

For  this  very  thing  Justice  pleads.  For  this  very  thing  all  Heaven 
waits ! 

*'By  all  for  which  the  martyrs  bore  their  agony  and  shame, 
By  all  the  burning  words  of  truth  with  which  the  prophets  came; 
By  the  future  which  awaits  us;  By  all  the  hopes  which  cast 
Their  faint  and  trembling  beams  across  the  blackness  of  the  past* 
And  by  the  blessed  thought  of  Him  who  for  earth 's  sorrows  died 
0  my  people !    0  my  brothers !  let  us  choose  the  righteous  side ! ' ' 

As  the  descendants  of  those  brave  men  who  purchased  religious  liberty 
by  their  blood ;  as  the  heirs  of  a  glorious  inheritance,  let  us  act — here — 
NOW\ 

"This  is  your  hour — creep  upon  it! 

i6 


242  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Summon  your  power,  leap  ujion  it! 
Grasp  it,  clasp  it,  bold  it  tight ! 
Strike  it,  spike  it,  with  full  might ! 
If  3'ou  take  too  long  to  ponder, 
Opportunity  may  wander." 

"Hesitation  is  a  mire — 
Climb  out,  climb  up,  climb  on  higher!" 

''Do  your  best  and  do  it  now.^' 
"Do  your  best  and  do  it  nowV 

Now, — now, — NOW!  That  word  is  not  the  word  of  man.  It  is  the 
command  of  Jehovah, — God, — God, — God ! 

Chairman  :  That  looks  as  though  you  and  I  meant  business.  Our 
mind,  our  heart,  our  whole  nature  is  on  fire,  and  I  want  that  you  should 
help  and  that  you  should  do.  We  want  $100,000  this  morning;  $100,- 
000,  and  it  is  easy;  we  are  going  to  get  it.  One  hundred  thousand  dollars 
to  build  the  university,  we  hope  in  Moscow  or  St.  Petersburg.  It  is 
asked  that  Dr.  Conwell  and  myself  and  maybe  others  shall  go  as  a  depu- 
tation to  His  Imperial  Majesty  the  Czar,  asking  that  he  would  permit 
that  we  should  put  this  great  Baptist  university  either  in  St.  Peters- 
burg or  in  Moscow.  I  do  not  want  to  leave  my  church  and  there  are  ur- 
gent domestic  reasons  why  I  should  be  in  London,  and  my  church  wants 
me,  and  my  work  wants  me;  but  I  am  prepared  to  give  all  up  and  go 
with  Dr.  Conwell  that  he  and  I  may  face  His  Imperial  Majesty  and  ask 
for  this  great  boon.  It  will  be  one  of  the  greatest  episodes  in  my  life. 
It  is  the  greatest  act  that  the  Baptists  have  done  in  all  the  centuries, 
and  every  one  of  you,  when  you  come  to  your  dying  day,  when  you  rest 
your  head  upon  that  dying  pillow,  I  believe  amidst  the  happy  memories 
of  your  life  you  will  count  among  the  greatest  this  auspicious  moment. 
You  and  I  have  come,  called  by  God,  for  such  a  moment  as  this,  and  we 
are  not  going  to  fail  him.  A  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  you  and  I 
are  going  to  raise  it,  by  God's  help.  [The  remainder  of  the  session  was 
spent  in  canvassing  for  subscriptions.  By  one  o'clock  $66,000  had  been 
pledged.] 

LAWN  PETE  AT  CROZER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY. 

Thursday  afternoon,  June  22,  the  Trustees  and  Faculty  of  Crozer 
Theological  Seminary  at  Upland,  Pa.,  tendered  a  reception  to  delegates 
and  visitors  to  the  Baptist  World  Alliance.  The  Continental  delegates 
were  given  free  transportation  from  Philadelphia  to  Chester;  and  all 
delegates  and  visitors  on  their  arrival  at  Chester  became  guests  of  the 
Seminary.     Chartered  and  special  cars  carried  guests  to  the  campus. 

Mr.  George  K.  Crozer,  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  family, 
accompanied  by  other  members  of  the  Board  and  their  families  and  by 
members  of  the  Faculty  and  their  families,  awaited  the  guests  near  the 


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Thursday,  Juno  22. J       liECOIiD  OF  I'ROCEEDINOS.  243 

entrance  to  the  Seminary  grounds  and  greeted  personally  more  than  two 
thousand  delegates  and  visitors.  Refreshments  were  served  under  the 
fine  old  maples  by  young  ladies  of  the  Upland  Baptist  Church. 

EIGHTH  SESSION. 

Thursday  Evening,  June  22,  1911. 
Session  opened  at  7.45  P.  M.,  with  a  devotional  service  led  by  Rev. 
F.  J.  Wilkins,  of  Australia. 

Hymn,  ''Oh,  Could  I  Speak  the  Matchless  Worth." 
Scripture  reading,  John  4 :  27-36. 

Mr.  Wilkins:  I  read  those  words  in  your  hearing  to-night  because 
of  their  suggestiveness  in  this  hour.  They  tell  us  of  the  perennial 
hopefulness  of  our  Lord  and  Master.  He  saw  the  men  coming  to  him 
from  the  city  and  he  said:  "The  fields  are  white  unto  the  harvest." 
Never  in  the  world's  story  had  the  words  truer  or  wider  application 
than  now.  We  have  been  reminded  again  and  again  this  week  that  the 
world's  fields  are  white  unto  the  harvest.  "Pray  ye  therefore  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  will  send  forth  laborers  into  his  harv^est." 

Led  in  prayer. 

Hymn,  "Oh,  Love  That  Will  not  Let  Me  Go." 

The  Chairman  (Rev.  R.  S.  MacArthur)  :  My  dear  Christian  Friends: 
In  taking  the  chair  on  this  occasion  my  words  shall  be  very  brief  in- 
deed. We  have  a  great  deal  of  important  work  which  we  have  to  com- 
plete to-night,  and  it  would  be  extremely  unwise  of  me  to  occupy  more 
than  a  minute  of  your  time.  These  are  great  days  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  this  has  been  in  my  thought  one  of  the  greatest  days  not  only  in 
the  history  of  the  Baptist  denomination  but  in  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian church.  I  do  not  know  of  another  day  in  any  country  to  which 
I  could  now  point  which  has  been  more  marked  in  the  history  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  than  this  very  day  in  this  Alliance.  The  glory  of  the 
Lord  has  been  on  our  faces  and  the  joy  of  the  Lord  has  been  in  our 
hearts,  and  our  faces  shall  shine  more  brightly  and  our  hearts  will  re- 
joice more  fully  if  we  complete  the  work  to-night  which  was  so  marvel- 
ously  and  successfully  begun  this  morning. 

At  this  point  W.  J.  Stevens,  vice-president  for  Australia,  was  called 
to  the  chair. 

The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Nominations  was  then  called  for. 

Dr.  Conwell:  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  the  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Nominations  is  now  in  order  I  suppose  without  any 
special  motion.  By  the  sufferance  of  the  vice-president  I  wish  to  sug- 
gest again  what  I  have  tried  to  suggest  at  the  opening  of  this  most 
wonderful  gathering.  Now  the  Committee  on  Nominations  are  instructed 
by  your  body  to  prepare  an  entire  list  of  officers  for  this  iVlliance.  and 
there  are  candidates  for  the  first  office  of  perhaps  larger  number  than 


244  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

I  know.  The  committee  have  made  their  report  and  prepared  it,  as  they 
tell  me,  complete,  but  they  have  not  told  anyone, — certainly  they  have 
not  told  me, — of  a  single  person  that  they  intend  to  nominate  for  any 
office.  If  they  had  I  would  not  be  here,  but  knowing  nothing  about 
their  report  whatever  and  knowing  the  fraternal  and  enthusiastic  sup- 
port that  some  friends  give  their  candidates,  I  have  had  this  fear  that 
some  over-enthusiastic  brother  might  spring  upon  this  Alliance  some 
suggestion  that  might  bring  about  some  kind  of  a  division  in  this  body. 
None  of  us  know  who  the  committee  have  nominated — settle  that  clearly 
in  your  minds — I  have  no  idea  whom  they  favor,  and  I  have  not  fa- 
vored any  candidate  and  have  no  candidate  of  my  own.  Now,  would  it 
not  be  a  grand  thing  to  say  to  all  the  world  that  this  denomination,  in 
which  every  man  is  independent  of  every  other  man  and  every  church 
independent  of  every  other  church,  elected  its  officers  unanimously? 
Neither  of  the  main  candidates  are  politicians.  I  am  as  near  one  as  the 
other  of  the  presidents  and  probably  the  same  is  true  of  all  the  other 
lists  of  officers.  I  therefore  move  that  this  Convention  agree  to  accept 
the  report  of  the  committee,  if  the  report  of  the  committee  be  i;nani- 
mous  for  the  list  of  officers  that  they  are  going  to  suggest.  I  think  that 
if  the  committee  have  all  agreed,  fifteen  of  them,  upon  the  candidates, 
that  we  ought  to  be  unanimous  about  it,  because  the  committee's  report 
would  evidently  be  carried  anyway,  and  some  people  would  feel  bad 
and  the  candidate,  whoever  he  was,  would  feel  that  he  had  not  the  sup- 
port of  the  entire  Alliance.  It  seems  to  me  a  matter  of  good  sense  in 
the  matter  of  Christian  fraternity,  that  this  good-natured  Alliance  should 
say  to  the  world  that  the  Baptists  of  the  world  are  all  one;  we  are  all 
one,  and  I  move  that  the  report  of  the  committee  be  accepted  of  all 
officers  of  which  they  are  unanimous.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Hatcher:  I  desire  most  heartily  to  support  the  suggestion  of 
Dr.  Conwell;  I  feel  that  we  have  a  noble  opportunity  to  say  to-night  we 
are  not  South  or  North,  we  are  not  American  or  European;  we  are  mem- 
bers of  the  World's  Baptist  Alliance  and  we  are  all  together.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Chairman  put  the  motion,  which  was  carried. 

The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Nominations  was  then  called  for  and 
was  presented  by  Dr.  W.  T.  Stackhouse. 

REPORT   OF   THE    COMMITTEE   ON    NOMINATION'S. 

Philadelphia,  Thursday,  June  22,  1911. 
To  The  Baptist  World  Alliance: 

Your  committee,  after  holding  three  sessions,  was  able  to  complete  its 
work  this  morning,  when  all  the  members  were  present,  except  one 
brother,  who  placed  his  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the  secretary  of  the 
Alliance  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  committee. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  list  of  nominees  contains  the  names  of  some 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  245 

of  the  members  of  the  Committee  on  Nominations.  And  it  is  fair  to  say 
that  these  brethren  desired  their  names  to  be  left  off.  Your  committee, 
however,  felt  that  continuity  of  service  upon  the  part  of  these  mem- 
bers was  very  desirable,  and  consequently  their  objections  were  over- 
ruled. 

Your  committee  has  pleasure  now  in  submitting  the  following  list  of 
nominations : 

(1)  For  Vice-Presidents: 

On  the  question  of  the  nomination  of  Vice-Presidents,  a  communica- 
tion was  received  from  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Alliance,  and  in 
accordance  therewith  your  committee  recommends  that  each  contributing 
Union  or  Convention  be  empowered  to  nominate  a  Vice-President,  and 
that  such  nomination  accompany  the  next  payment  of  the  annual  sub- 
scription. 

On  the  nomination  of  ten  such  bodies  already  received,  the  following 
are  recommended  for  immediate  appointment : 

Bahamas,  Morn  ay  Williams,  New  York. 

British  Honduras,  R.  Cleghorn,  Belize. 

Germany,  B.  Woerts,   Boehum. 

Jamaica,  P.  Williams,  Bethel  Town. 

National  Baptist   Convention,   A.   R.  Robinson,   Chestei*,  Pa. 

Russia  (Open  Baptists),  I.  S.  Prokhanoff,  St.  Petersburg. 

New  South  Wales,  Hugh  Dixson,  Sydney. 

South  Australia,  A.  N.  Marshall,  B.  A.,  Adelaide. 

West  Australia,  H.  S.  Ranford,  J.  P.,  London. 

Tasmania,  C.  Palmer,  Latrobe. 

New  Zealand,  Alfred  North,  Ponsonby. 

(2)  For  the  Executive  Committee: 

Your  committee,  following  the  constitution  of  the  Allance,  nominates: 
British — five  members,  as  follows : 
W.  E.  Blomfield,  B.  A.,  B.  D.,  Rawdon. 

D.  Witton  Jenkins,  Salendine  Nook. 
Hei'bert  Marnham,  London. 

Newton  H.  Marshall,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D.,  London. 
W.  T.  Whitley,  M.  A.,  LL.  D.,  Preston. 
American — seven  members,  as  follows : 
Lathan  A.  Crandall,  D.  D.,  Minnesota. 
George  E.  Horr,  D.  D.,  Massachusetts. 
John  Humpstone,  D.  D.,  New  York. 
W.  W.  Landrum,  D.  D.,  Kentucky. 

E.  C.  Morris,  D.  D.,  Arkansas. 
R.  H.  Pitt,  D.  D.,  Virginia. 
Hon.  E.  W.  Stephens,  Missouri. 

Canadian — two  members,  as  follows : 
A.  P.  McDiarmid,  D.  D.,  Manitoba. 
S.  J.  Moore,  Toronto. 


246  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

For  the  following  countries,  one  each : 

Australian,  Westmore  Gr.  Stephens,  J.  P.,  Melbourne. 

Chinese,  J.  T.  Proctor,  Shanghai. 

German,  J.  G.  Lehmann,  Kassel. 

Indian,   C.  E.  Wilson,  B,  A.,  London. 

Japanese,  Y.  Chiba,  Tokio. 

Russian,  L.  Brauer,  Riga, 

Swedish,  C.  E.  Benander,  D.  D.,  Stockholm. 

(3)  Tor  Treasurer,  your  committee  nominates: 
E.  M.  Sipprell,  St.  John,  N.  B. 

In  case  a  change  is  made  in  the  constitution  authorizing  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  treasurer  for  Europe,  your  committee  would  nominate : 
Herbert  Marnham,  London. 

(4)  For  Secretaries,  your  committee  has  pleasure  in  nominating: 
J.  N.  Prestridge,  D.  D.,  Kentucky. 

J.  H.  Shakespeare,  M.  A.,  London. 

(5)  For  President,  your  committee  has  pleasure  in  presenting  the 
following  unanimous  nomination: 

Robert  Stuart  MacArthur,  D.  D.,  New  York. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

W.   T.   Stackhouse,   Chairman. 
W.  T.  Whitley,  Secretary, 

The  report  as  above  was  received  with  applause  and  unanimously 
adopted. 

President-Elect  MacArthur:  My  dear  friends,  I  still  insist  on  the 
remarks  made  at  the  opening  of  this  session,  that  we  have  a  great  deal 
of  important  work  to  do  to-night  and  that  it  would  be  unwise  in  me  to 
occupy  any  considerable  portion  of  time  with  remarks.  I  want  to  say, 
however,  that  I  would  be  either  more  or  less  than  human  if  I  did  not 
appreciate  the  great  honor  which  you  have  conferred  upon  me.  To  be 
the  successor  of  Alexander  MacLaren,  preacher,  pastor,  scholar,  exposi- 
tor. Christian  and  gentleman;  to  be  the  successor  of  John  Clifford,  pa- 
triot, statesman,  orator,  preacher,  pastor  and  brother,  is  an  honor  be- 
yond the  power  of  my  words  adequately  to  describe.  I  never  sought 
this  honor,  neither  by  spoken  nor  written  word.  To  be  perfectly  frank 
with  you,  I  never  dreamed  of  it  till  my  friend,  Dr.  Prestridge,  suggested 
my  name  and  I  did  not  think  of  it  then  either  as  a  possibility  or  proba- 
bility until  Dr.  Villers  supported  the  nomination.  I  look  upon  this  po- 
sition as  one  of  vast  importance,  to  be  a  world-wide  Bishopric  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  I  have  often  thought  that  the  man  who  filled  this  po- 
sition ought  to  be  a  man  of  ability  to  speak  many  languages,  a  man  of 
leisure,  so  that  he  could  travel  from  country  to  country  to  make  his  in- 
fluence felt  where  that  influence  was  most  required.  I  can  only  say  that 
with  your  kind  indulgence  and  hearty  co-operation,  and  with  the  bless- 
ing of  God  our  Father  and  the  presence  of  Christ  our  honored  Leader 
and  Master,  I  shall  do  the  best  I  can  for  you  and  for  him  and  for  hu- 
manity, as  I  have  been  doing  in  the  pastorate,  lo,  these  many  years. 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  247 

The  Chairman   (Dr.  Mac  Art  bur)  :  I  have  pleasure  in  presenting  to 
you  as  the  iirst  speaker  to-night  an  honored  and  beloved  brother  from 
Kassel,  Germany,  the  editor  of  our  publications  in  Germany,  Rev.  J.  G.  • 
Lehmann. 

THE   GERMAN  BAPTISTS. 
By  Rev.  J.  G.  LEHMANN,  Kassel,  Germany. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  was  a  fine  evening  in  April,  1834.  The  setting  sun  poured  a  flood_  of 
light  over  the  old-fashioned  roofs  of  Hamburg  and  painted  the  patina 
(green)  church  steeples  of  the  venerable  old  Lutheran  free-town  with  his 
gay  colors  and  reflected  his  red  sheen  on  the  glittering  waters  of  the 
great  River  Elbe.  Hundreds  of  sailing  vessels  from  all  parts  of  the  globe 
were  lying  at  anchor  in  the  famous  river  harbor,  full  of  the  business  and 
excitement  of  marine  and  commercial  enterprises.  Scarcely  anybody  took 
notice  of  a  little  group  of  eight  simple  persons,  who  entered  a  small  boat, 
crossed  the  river,  and  alighted  on  the  opposite  bank  of  Steinwarder  Is- 
land. There  happened  something  wonderful,  strange  and  at  the  same 
time  simple  and  beautiful.  After  a  fervent  prayer  on  the  bank  they 
stepped  into  the  river,  and  a  venerable  American,  Dr.  Barnas  Sears,  from 
Hamilton,  immersed  first  the  arduous  Bible-student  and  evangelist,  J.  G. 
Oncken,  and  then  six  others  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost.  But  this  event,  so  little  noticed  then,  was  of  the  utmost 
importance.  It  was  a  fresh  start  for  the  Christianizing  of  Europe,  which 
in  God's  hand  resulted  in  far-reaching  consequences.  On  the  following 
day,  April  23rd,  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Germany  was  solemnly  con- 
stituted in  Hamburg  by  these  seven  believers.  They  Avere  convinced  to- 
gether with  the  whole  Baptist  brotherhood  in  the  world,  that  Christ  was 
their  only  Lord  and  Mediator  between  God  and  themselves,  that  absolute 
obedience  to  Him  was  their  highest  duty,  and  that  it  was  their  Lord  and 
Master's  will,  that  every  individual  human  soul  must  come  directly  to 
Him  without  any  other  mediator  in  order  to  be  saved  and  to  realize  his 
sonship  with  God.  Therefore,  they  had  the  most  powerful  missionary  im- 
pulse, and  therefore  they  had  the  clearest  conception  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  Christ's  church  from  the  State,  and  of  the  scriptural  conditions 
of  church-membership,  and  of  the  biblical  teaching  about  Christ's  insti- 
tutions: Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  And  they  were  ready  and 
prepared  by  God  Himself  and  His  Holy  Word  to  be  His  witnesses  to  the 
truth  revealed  to  them,  before  anybody  and  everybody. 

How  this  little  church  was  hated,  and  laughed,  and  scoffed  at,  and  per- 
secuted by  the  State  church  and  civil  authorities!  How  often  Oncken 
was  summoned  before  the  police-courts  and  sentenced,  fined,  and  impris- 
oned!  In  order  to  get  rid  of  him  quietly  the  Senate  of  Hamburg  even 
offered  him  and  his  whole  family  a  free  passage  to  America!  But  in 
spite  of  all  the  difficulties  and  persecutions  the  scriptural  Christianizing 
principle  of  a  church  independent  of  the  State  and  consisting  only  of 
members  professing  faith  in  and  loyalty  to  Christ  gained  new  adherents 
and  spread  into  otiier  centres  of  Germany.  .     . 

The  most  important  Jorward-movement  was  the  foundation  of  a  simi- 
lar small  church  of  baptized  believers  in  Berlin.    There  my  father,  Gott- 


248  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

fried  Wilhelm  Lehmann,  and  five  others  were  baptized  in  a  lake  near  the 
city  in  1837  by  Oncken.  In  consequence,  my  father  was  shamefully  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  from  Christian  societies  and  organizations  in  which  he 
had  taken  a  leading  part.  But  the  truth  spread  in  spite  of  opposition  and 
misrepresentations.  Even  the  broadminded  and  pious  King  Frederic 
William  IV.  declared,  that  "this  sect  would  probably  die  of  itself  if 
properly  treated  by  the  authorities." 

Did  it  die  of  itself?  At  present  there  are  two  hundred  and  four 
Baptist  churches  in  all  parts  of  Germany  with  41,544  members.  Every 
Sunday  in  eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven  different  places  the  gospel  is 
preached  and  the  working  principles  of  the  New  Testament  church  de- 
monstrated by  active  service.  In  two  hundred  and  fourteen  chapels 
alone  67,000  seats  are  provided  for  all  who  care  to  hear  the  message  of 
peace  and  goodwill  to  men.  And  these  churches,  chiefly  comprising  the 
poorer  classes,  prove  their  loyalty  to  their  Master  and  to  their  principles 
by  contributing  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  every  year  to- 
wards the  different  needs  of  the  work.  That  we  are  making  headway, 
slowly  but  surely,  the  comparison  between  the  numbers  of  the  popula- 
tion and  the  numbers  of  our  members  in  Gennany  clearly  shows.  Dur- 
ing the  last  decade  the  population  has  increased  at  the  rate  of  fourteen 
per  cent.,  but  the  church-membership  at  the  rate  of  thirty-six  per  cent. 

Even  the  authorities  are  beginning  to  see  the  strength  of  our  position 
and  the  loftiness  of  our  ideals.  One  of  the  German  delegates  present  is 
Brother  Broda,  pastor  of  one  of  our  largest  churches  in  Germany.  It 
consists  of  poor  miners  and  laborers,  who  have  wandered  from  the  East 
of  Germany  to  the  West,  where  iron  and  coal  combined  give  plenty  of 
opportunity  to  earn  a  living.  This  church,  under  Mr.  Broda 's  able  lead- 
ership and  his  noble  example,  has  built  a  splendid  and  spacioi;s  chapel, 
bought  its  own  cemetery,  and  is  now  building  a  practical  church-house 
for  all  sorts  of  church  work.  Landeshauptmann  Hammerschmidt,  one 
of  the  highest  government  authorities  of  the  province,  used  to  take  his 
friends  around  to  the  Baptist  chapel  and  point  out  to  them  what  poor 
miners  can  do,  prompted  by  the  love  of  Christ  and  by  the  principle  of  a 
free  church  of  His  disciples. 

And  this  example  of  building  up  churches,  according  to  JNew  Testa- 
ment principles,  has  influenced  and  is  at  present  still  influencing  wide 
circles  of  earnest  Christian  believers,  who  still  belong  to  the  State 
church,  but  form  within  its  pale  separate  communities  for  worship  and 
work.  They  nv;mber  some  hundreds  of  thousands  and  the  question  of 
establishing  independent  churches  of  believers  according  to  New  Testa- 
ment principles  is  acute  in  these  circles.  Moreover,  the  question  of 
general  disestablishment  is  discussed  in  many  of  the  most  influential 
circles  of  all  parties.  We  Baptists  do  not  so  much  go  in  for  discussing 
the  question,  we  solve  it.  We  show  to  every  earnest  inquirer  how  a  free 
church  practically  works,  and  we  fancy,  this  is  a  better  way  of  propa- 
gating than  discussions. 

LIBERTY    OF    COlSrSCIEN-CE. 

Has  the  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience,  so  closely  connected  with 
our  conception  of  a  free  church,  in  a  free  State,  gained  ground  in  the 
seventy-seven  years  of  Baptist  work  in  Germany?  Let  me  give  you 
thi'ee  moving  pictures,  which  I  hope  will  move  and  touch  your  hearts. 


Tluirsday,  .June  2J.  |       RECOIW  OF  I'h'OCIJEDlXGS.  249 

I  imagine  I  see  the  old  '' Winserbaum" — prison  in  Hamburg — rising 
close  beside  one  of  the  many  canals  that  traverse  the  city.  I  fancy  I 
can  see  the  face  of  our  pioneer  Oneken  behind  the  iron  bars  of  one  of 
the  windows  overlooking  the  canal  and  a  little  harbor  for  river-boats. 
On  the  bridge  opposite  stand  a  group  of  brethren  and  sisters  pointing 
heavenward  and  endeavoring  to  send  some  wireless  messages  of  love 
and  good  cheer  to  tlieir  beloved  imprisoned  pastor,  who  many  times  was 
thus  punished  for  preaching  the  gospel  and  baptizing  believers. 

To-daii  in  Hamburg  and  neighborhood  there  are  eight  Baptist  churches 
Avith  five  fine  chapels  and  1,7'2,?  members,  which  enjoy  full  liberty  to 
work,  and  are  recognized  and  honored  by  the  civil  authorities.  The 
union  of  Baptist  churches  in  Germany  is  incorporated  in  Hamburg  and 
owns  in  its  own  name  the  handsome  college  where  our  ministers,  the  fu- 
ture standard-bearers  of  our  i)rinciples,  are  educated.  Since  the  open- 
ing of  this  seminary  in  1880,  two  hundred  and  eighty-two  students  have 
been  received,  eighty-one  of  which  were  foreigners :  forty-five  from  Rus- 
sia, seventeen  from  Austria-Hungary,  nine  from  Holland,  six  from 
Switzerland,  two  from  Bulgaria,  one  from  South  Africa,  and  one  from 
North  America.  The  annual  expenses,  including  the  salaries  of  the 
teachers,  amount  to  thirty-five  thousand  marks.  That  looks  like  pro- 
gress. 

Another  picture.  The  small  Baptist  church  in  Berlin  for  some  years 
after  its  foundation  used  to  meet  in  Seharrenstrasse  in  the  centre  of  the 
city.  On  Ascension-day,  in  1842,  the  meeting  was  well  attended  and 
Lehmann  preached  on  the  text,  "Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered 
these  things  and  to  enter  into  his  glory?"  Suddenly  the  door  was 
pushed  open,  and  eighteen  strong  men  of  the  working-class,  whose  com- 
rade had  prevdously  been  converted  and  baptized,  entered,  caps  on  their 
heads,  cigars  and  pipes  in  their  mouths,  sticks  in  their  hands,  inter- 
rupted and  attacked  the  preacher,  knocked  him  down,  demolished  the 
pulpit,  the  seats,  and  the  windows,  ill-treated  the  members,  and  then 
pushed  and  flung  them  down  the  stairs  one  by  one,  and  out  of  the  house 
into  the  opeji  street,  where  a  noisy  multitude  hailed  each  victim  with 
fresh  roars,  and  scorn,  and  laughter.  No  police  protected  the  despised 
Baptists. 

And  at  present?  In  this  large  audience  I  recognize  many  faces  which 
I  think  I  first  saw  in  Berlin  in  August,  1908,  when  the  first  European 
Baptist  Congress  was  held  in  the  midst  of  ten  flourishing  churches  with 
about  four  thousand  members.  May  I  appeal  to  you  living  Avitnesses  of 
the  great  pi-ogress,  the  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience  has  made  ?  True, 
■we  had  also  invited  the  civil  and  church  authorities,  but  they  happened 
to  be  so  very  busy,  that  they  could  not  even  send  any  representative,  but 
we  did  not  miss  full  liberty  to  do  and  to  say  what  the  spirit  moved  us 
to.  And  the  spirit  did  move  our  leader.  Dr.  Clifford,  and  others  to  say 
many  a  bold  word,  not  uttered  before  in  Berlin  before  such  large  audi- 
ences, and  many  wished  that  our  State-minister  for  public  worship  and 
education  had  been  present  to  hear  them. 

A  third  picture.  Nowhere  have  our  Baptist  pioneers  been  worse 
treated  than  in  the  former  Electorate  of  Hessen.  In  IMarburg  one  of 
our  pioneers  was  punished  for  not  having  his  newborn  child  sprinkled. 
The  Judge  told  him:  "First  you  will  be  fined  five  dollars,  then  ten,  then 
twentv.  then  fortv.  then  eighty,  until  you  have  nothing  left.     Then  you 


250  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

will  be  put  into  prison,  and  if  that  does  not  help,  you  and  your  wife 
and  child  must  leave  the  country!" 

But  he  was  not  to  be  frightened.  He  began  to  ascend  this  terrible 
scale  of  punishments.  The  worst,  however,  happened  to  him  in  June, 
1842.  While  he  was  away  from  home,  an  uncle  of  his,  whom  the  legal 
authorities  had  appointed  curator  for  his  children,  together  with  other 
relatives,  a  nurse,  and  five  policemen  entered  his  house,  took  the  infant 
away  from  the  mother  by  force  and  triumphantly  carried  it  to  church  to 
have  "it  christened.  .And  a  similar  outrageous  brutality  was  perpe- 
trated the  following  year  with  his  second  child. 

And  now? 

The  untiring  work  of  our  fathers,  especially  my  father,  G.  W.  Leh- 
mann,  in  working  upon  the  public  opinion,  in  sending  up  petition  after 
petition  to  the  authorities  and  to  the  legislative  corporations,  and  tKe 
influential  help  of  the  brethren  in  America  and  England,  who  several 
times  sent  deputations  over  to  Germany,  contributed  to  abolish  such  anti- 
quated mediaeval  practices  and  to  bring  about  a  new  era  which  con- 
demns such  actions  of  force  in  matters  of  faith. 

In  1875  a  law  was  passed  in  Prussia  which  allows  Baptist  churches 
under  certain  conditions  to  secure  corporate  rights  so  that  such  churches 
can  hold  property  in  their  own  name  and  are  recognized  by  the  authori- 
ties. This  may  seem  to  be  a  very  simple  thing,  a  matter  ol  course,  in 
America,  but  in  Germany  with  its  dominating  State  church  it  means  a 
great  deal,  and  corporate  rights  are  even  now  very  difficult  to  obtain. 
In  1907  only  thirty-four  churches  in  Prussia,  (forty-four  churches  in 
Germany)  had  received  them. 

CO-OPERATION. 

German  Baptists  have  always  well  understood  to  combine  the  two 
principles :  The  full  independence  of  each  local  church  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other,  the  co-operation  and  union  of  these  independent  units 
for  certain  great  causes  and  enterprises. 

Only  eleven  years  after  the  foundation  of  the  small  church  in  Berlin, 
Lehmann  founded  at  Berlin,  in  July,  1848,  the  first  Association  of  Bap- 
tist churches  in  Germany. 

The  following  year,  1849,  the  delegates  of  all  churches  in  Germany) 
and  Denmark  were  invited  to  meet  in  Hamburg,  and  fifty-six  brethren 
followed  this  invitation,  and  organized  the  Union  of  churches  in  Ger- 
many and  surrounding  countries,  recognizing  the  full  independence  of 
every  local  church,  but  also  emphasizing  the  necessity  of  co-operation 
and  union  through  the  bond  of  fraternal  love. 

The  Union  only  met  every  third  year  in  conference,  the  associations 
annually.  But  by  the  missionary  spirit  of  our  pioneers  this  Union  ex- 
tended soon  not  only  over  Germany  and  Denmark,  but  also  comprised  the 
churches  in  Poland,  Russia,  the  Netherlands,  Switzerland,  Austria,  Hun- 
gary, and  even  churches  in  Sweden,  France,  South  Africa,  and  Australia. 
So  that  our  Union  Conferences  for  some  years  were  European,  Conti- 
nental Conventions.  Now  some  of  the  daughters  have  outgrown  the 
mother;  all  churches  in  foreign  countries  have  their  own  organizations, 
only  those  in  Switzerland  are  still  closely  united  with  the  German 
Union. 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  251 

LIBERTY    OF    PRESS. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  Avork  in  Germany  there  was  no  liberty  for 
publisliing  our  principles  by  the  press.  Until  1848  our  small  Missionary 
Magazine  was  only  allowed  to  report  about  the  work  and  victories  of  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Union  and  Society  in  heathen  countries.  But  i)ot  a 
syllable  could  be  published  about  our  difficulties  and  persecutions  nor 
about  the  progress  of  our  work  in  Germany. 

Our  brethren,  filled  with  holy  missionary  spirit  and  fire,  distributed 
tracts  very  freely,  but  very  often  were  pmnished  for  doing  it.  But  the 
civil  revolution  in  1848  broke  down  these  barriers  and  now  we  have  full 
liberty  of  press  and  are  using  it  to  good  advantage.  Mr.  Oncken  bad 
started  a  bookshop  of  his  own  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  work  in 
Hamburg.  This  business  grew  with  the  churches  and  in  1876  he  gave  it 
up  to  the  German  Baptist  Union. 

Here  I  must  speak  of  the  long,  noble  and  liberal  help  our  brethren  in 
America  have  granted  to  our  work  in  Germany.  The  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union  for  many  years  considered  our  pioneers  their  mission- 
aries and  paid  their  salaries.  The  American  Baptist  Publication  So- 
ciety stepped  in,  when  our  publication  work  became  the  property  of  our 
Union,  and  sent  us  a  man,  as  we  then  needed.  Dr.  Philipp  Bickel,  whose 
name  and  work  are  known  as  well  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  on  the 
other;  he  undertook  the  management  of  the  publication  work,  and  to-day 
the  Union  owns  a  fine  publication  house  in  Kassel,  with  printing  and 
bookbinding  shops,  representing  a  value  of  about  $130,000. 

Also  our  Theological  Seminary  in  Hamburg,  through  the  thirty-one 
years  of  its  existence,  has  been  liberally  supported  by  the  American  Bap- 
tist Missionary'  Union.  Prof.  J.  G.  Fetzer  and  my  brother,  Joseph  Leh- 
mann,  have  done  a  splendid  work  there  and  we  mourn  that  they  were 
taken  away  in  the  best  of  their  years.  This  seminary  has  not  only  been 
a  blessing  to  Germany  by  educating  two  hundred  and  one  German  pas- 
tors, but  also  to  Europe,  for  eighty-one  of  its  graduates  have  been  for- 
eigners, chiefly  from  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary,  but  also  from  the 
Netherlands,  Switzerland  and  Bulgaria. 

PIONEERS    IN    SUNDAY-SCHOOL   WORK. 

Also  in  Sunday-school  work  the  German  Baptists  have  led  the  way. 
In  fact,  the  very  first  Sunday-school  we  know  of  in  Germany  was 
founded  in  1824  by  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  the  same  Oncken  in  Ham- 
burg, who  ten  years  later  established  the  first  Baptist  church  there.  It 
goes  without  speaking  that  wherever  Baptists  began  to  work  they  also 
started  Sunday-schools  and  on  the  class  or  group  system.  By  their  good 
example  a  great  number  of  Sunday-schools  in  State  churches  were 
started,  and  so  we  can  claim  that  Baptists  have  greatly  contributed  to 
bring  the  great  Christianizing  influence  of  the  Sunday-schools  to  work 
upon  our  German  youth. 

CO-OPERATION    IN   OTHER  CHRISTIAN   LABORS. 

In  some  other  fields  of  Christian  work,  however,  where  the  German 
Baptists  did  not  take  the  lead,  they  did  their  share  to  strengthen  and 
help  the  great  work  of  our  Master,  as  begun  by  others. 


252  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

In  1891  Brother  Ecluard  Scheve,  in  Berlin,  took  up  the  German  Baptist 
Mission  in  the  Cameroons,  Africa,  the  origin  of  which  is  ever  connected 
with  the  name  of  the  English  hero  missionary,  Alfred  Saker.  Under  Mr. 
Karl  Maseher's  energetic  and  successful  leadership  it  has  grown  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years,  so  that  at  present  fourteen  male  and  thirteen 
female  missionaries  and  fifty-four  native  teachers  are  connected  with  it, 
and  the  annual  subscriptions  reached  the  sum  of  over  thirty  thousand 
dollars. 

Pastor  E.  Scheve  also  started  the  deaconesses'  Avork  among  our 
churches.  In  1897  he  and  his  able  and  noble  wife  began  this  work  with 
one  deaconess;  now  the  institution  owns  a  fine  house  in  Berlin,  another 
in  Hannover,  and  in  Buckow,  and  counts  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
sisters  of  mercy.  Besides  these  there  are  three  other  similar  establish- 
ments connected  with  the  first  Berlin,  the  Altona,  and  the  Hamburg 
church.  Altogether  there  are  at  present  more  than  two  hundred  of  our 
deaconesses  day  and  night  working  in  this  Christ-like  work  of  helping 
and  nursing  the  sick  and  visiting  the  poor  and  needy. 

This  is  a  very  short  sketch  of  the  Christianizing  influences  which  the 
German  Baptists  might  count,  when  asked  to  respond  to  the  great  roll 
call  of  Nations  and  Denominations,  to  which  we  look  forward.  For 
"when  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory  and  all  his  holy  angels 
with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  gloiy :  and  before  him 
shall  be  gathered  all  nations,"  and  in  the  Revelation  our  glorious  King 
deals  with  local  churchesl  So  He  may  well  call  on  that  grand  day  upon 
the  Baptist  denomination  in  America,  in  Great  Britain,  in  Germany. 
Will  He  then  be  able  to  say:  ''You  have  been  doing  the  works  of  mercy, 
which  characterize  my  true  disciples;  you  have  helped  according  to  your 
possibilities  to  fill  your  country  with  my  ideals,  principles,  forces,  deeds, 
which  have  hastened  the  coming  of  this  great  day"? 

But  I  know  as  well  as  you,  that  with  God  far  weightier  than  all  num- 
bers and  facts,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  are  the  powers  and  forces  which 
are  imponderable. 

Christianizing  means  a  deadly  fight,  a  relentless  war  between  the  pow- 
ers of  Christ  and  those  of  the  Prince  of  the  world. 

Are  we  opposed  to  the  world  and  the  worldly  influences  and  powers'? 
Are  we  influencing  and  converting  the  world  around  us?  Or  is  the 
world  slowly  but  steadily  entering  our  churches  and  have  we  become 
again  part  of  that  world,  which  Christ  considered  as  His  antagonist? 

The  German  Baptists  are  full  aware  of  the  great  importance  of  these 
questions.  We  realize,  that  we  can  only  help  in  Christianizing  our  coun- 
try in  so  far  as  we  really  continue  to  be  churches  of  brethren  and  sisters, 
closely  united  by  the  bond  of  perfectness,  which  is  LOVE. 

In  all  the  social  struggles  of  our  times,  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
only  can  be  and  will  be  victorious  by  this  most  divine  power:  LOVE. 

Therefore,  let  me  conclude  with  the  urgent  exhortation  of  the  Apostle 
Paul:  "Work  out  your  owm  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,"  but  also 
with  his  victorious  confidence:  "For  it  is  God,  which  worketh  in  us, 
both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure ! ' '  He  will  also  help  the  Ger- 
man Baptists  to  wall  and  to  do  more  earnestly  than  ever  "His  good 
pleasure"  in  helping  to  Christianize  Europe. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman  :  I  am  sure  that  we  have  all  greatly  appreciated  this  admir- 


Tliursclay,  June  22. J       h'ECOJW  OF  rJlOCEEDINGS.  253 

able  paper.  Our  brother  by  his  character  and  work  adds  lustre  to  an 
honored  name  and  has  stirred  our  hearts  by  the  i'acts  he  has  given  us 
in  English,  so  strong,  so  clear,  so  accurate,  so  perfect. 

I  have  the  great  honor  of  presenting  to  you  a  distinguished  Italian 
gentleman,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Milan,  who  is  Profes- 
sor of  Comparative  Religions  in  the  Baptist  Seminary  in  Rome,  and  who 
is  also  pastor  of  tlie  Baptist  church  in  Naples,  Dr.  Domenico  Scalera. 
We  are  to  have  a  double  pleasure  in  having  an  address  from  Dr.  Sca- 
lera. It  was  thougiit  that  not  many  of  you  would  understand  it  if  it  were 
delivered  in  Italian  and  our  friend,  the  Rev.  Robert  Walker,  my  Scottish- 
Italian-Ameriean  friend  and  brother  has  translated  the  address.  Mr, 
Walker  was  for  thirteen  years  pastor  of  the  Italian  Baptist  church  in 
Naples,  the  church  of  which  our  brother  now  is  pastor.  Mr.  Walker 
now  is  connected  with  Italian  work  in  New  York  City.  He  has  six  mis- 
sions in  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  and  has  eleven  missionaries,  men  and 
women,  working  among  the  Italians.  They  have  baptized  about  sixty 
converted  Italians  in  eighteen  months  into  the  membership  of  the 
church  of  which  our  beloved  brother  Dr.  Edward  Judson  is  the  pastor 
in  New  York.     Rev.  Robert  Walker  will  speak  for  Dr.  Scalera. 

Dr.  Scalera  went  to  the  platform  and  Mr.  Walker  read  the  following 
translation  of  his  address : 


THE  CHRISTIANIZATION  OF  ITALY. 

By  Dr.  DOMENICO  SCALERA,  Rome,  Italy. 

(Translated  and  read  by  Rev.  Robert  Walker,  New  York.) 

''Go  ye  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Such  is  the  charge  which  Jesus  Christ,  our  Master  and  Leader,  has  laid 
upon  His  church.  In  virtue  of  this  word  we  are  spared  the  necessity  of 
making  any  long  research  as  to  our  mission  in  the  world;  here  it  is  de- 
fined with  clearness  and  precision  by  the  living  voice  of  the  Master: 
''Go  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations."  Thus  the  church  is  charged 
with  the  duty  of  making  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  disciples  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus,  leading  them  to  know  the  Good  News  of  salvation  in 
Christ,  bringing  them  into  spiritual  contact  with  God,  in  short.  Chris- 
tianizing them.  And  that  the  church  has  obeyed  her  Master's  command 
we  learn  from  the  history  of  the  first  three  centuries  of  Christianity, 
from  the  six  interdenominational  congresses  of  Christian  missions,  the 
last  of  which,— that  held  in  Edinburgh,— was  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant phenomena  of  the  last  three  hundred  years  in  Christendom;  we 
learn  it  also  from  this  our  Baptist  World  Alliance  which  stands  for  com- 
plete obedience  to  the  command  of  our  Saviour. 

It  really  seemed  as  if  Christian  thought  had  gained  a  definite  victory 
over  all  other  historic  forms  of  religious  phenomenon;  but  for  some 
time  back  Ave  have  seen  an  extraordinary  revival  in  the  religious  ac- 
tivity which  has  its  source  in  Buddhism,  an  enervating  mysticism  in 
whicli  the  life  and  conscience  of  man  die  a  slow  death. 


254  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

But  I  see  that  I  am  getting  away  from  the  subject  assigned  to  me.  I 
have  to  speak  to  you  especially  about  the  Christianizing  of  Italy.  Does 
it  not  sound  strange  to  speak  of  Christianizing  a  people  "vvho  gave 
Christianity  to  the  world,  and  who  have  in  their  midst  as  the  most  genu- 
ine manifestation  of  their  soul,  the  papacy  which  claims  to  be  the  only 
true  depositary  of  the  thought  of  Christ?  And  how  many  Protestants 
there  are  who  believe  in  good  faith  that  papal  Italy  is  Christian,  just  as 
much  as  a  Protestant  nation  is  Christian!  How  many  of  our  good 
brethren  are  opposed  to  missions  in  Italy,  because  they  think  she  already 
possesses  the  truth  which  saves!  It  is  a  grievous  error;  the  Italian  peo- 
ple, in  their  religious  beliefs  and  practices  are  far  more  heathen  than 
we  can  imagine.  Outside  of  the  country  the  religion  of  the  Italians  is 
little  and  incorrectly  known,  because  foreigners  generally  look  at  it 
through  the  distorting  medium  of  art  which  fascinates  and  overpowers. 
Would  to  God  that  papacy  might  employ  art  to  maintain  the  religion 
of  her  devotees  at  a  high  level.  True  works  of  art  in  the  church  of 
Rome  are  rarely  within  the  reach  of  the  faithful.  The  statues  and  pic- 
tures which  are  given  to  them  for  worship  are  very  inartistic  produc- 
tions of  vulgar  tradesmen;  never  are  the  Madonnas  of  Raphael,  the 
marvellous  angels  of  Beato  Angelico  found  in  the  homes  of  Catholics  as 
objects  of  worship.  On  the  contrary,  a  great  many  of  the  churches  and 
almost  all  the  homes  of  Roman  Catholics  are  supplied  with  prints  of  no 
artistic  value,  frequently  monstrous,  blessed  by  the  bishop  or  priest,  be- 
fore which  lights  are  kept  constantly  burning,  and  to  which  the  faithful 
bow  to  implore  protection. 

As  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Covenant  wept  over  the  miserable  spiritual 
conditions  of  the  people  of  Israel,  so  we  weep  over  the  religious  condi- 
tions of  the  people  of  Italy  when  we  see  them  humiliated,  degraded  even 
to  bestiality,  in  the  profession  of  their  beliefs.  It  is  commonly  believed 
that  in  India  are  to  be  found  the  most  degrading  manifestations  of  the 
religious  sentiment.  I  do  not  question  the  truth  of  this.  But  when  in 
the  pursuit  of  my  studies  I  look  on  some  of  the  religious  practices  of  the 
most  ignorant  classes  of  the  Italian  people,  especially  in  the  south,  I 
cannot  help  seeing  something  of  India  in  Italy.  For  example,  how  many 
of  the  peasants  of  the  Basilicata  and  of  the  Apulias  go  crawling  and 
licking  with  their  tongues  the  floors  of  the  churches  from  the  door  to 
the  high  altar,  in  order  to  propitiate  some  saint  or  Madonna !  Never  a  year 
passes  that  the  priests  do  not  create  a  new  Madonna  to  be  worshiped,  a 
new  shrine  to  be  visited,  a  new  festival  to  be  observed.  Thus  a  dis- 
honest, shameful  competition  is  set  up  between  Madonna  and  Madonna, 
shrine  and  shrine,  festival  and  festival.  Frequently  priests  are  heard 
declaring  from  the  pulpit  that  it  is  useless  to  go  to  the  old  shrines 
where  the  old  saints  perform  no  m-ore  miracles, — because  they  are  tired 
of  their  business, — and  inviting  them  to  visit  the  newer  shrines.  Thus 
you  see  ''Holy  Mother  Church"  takes  thought  of  the  old  age  of  her 
Saints  and  Madonnas,  insuring  for  them  an  honorable  and  deserved 
rest.  It  would  not  surprise  me  to  hear  that  the  Pope  is  thinking  of 
founding  an  asylum  for  invalid  saints.  These  are  things  to  provoke 
laughter  and  yet  they  often  make  us  weep,  when  we  think  that  it  is  all 
done  in  the  holy  name  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ. 

The  people  of  Naples,  somewhat  more  heathen  than  the  others,  not 
satisfied  with  all  the  Madonnas  of  the  white  race,  have  created  a  black 
one  whom  they  call  Mamma  Schiavona,  and  whom  they  believe  to  be  un- 


Tlmrsday,  June  22. J       REVORD  OF  RROC'EEDlNGii.  255 

excelled  and  insuperable  in  healing  all  kinds  of  diseases,  in  enabling  girls 
to  find  husbands  and  in  helping  to  win  when  people  gamble  in  the  lottery. 
For  among  the  Italian  people  religion  performs  also  a  social  function, 
in  the  bad  sense  of  the  word.  There  is  not  an  ollice  of  the  public  lottery 
or  a  house  of  ill-fame  which  has  not  a  Madonna  or  a  saint  who  acts  as 
a  protector  of  evil  and  corruption. 

There  are  cities  in  Italy  where,  in  this  twentieth  century,  pagan  prac- 
tices are  still  continued  under  the  mask  of  Christianity.  In  Naples 
every  year  they  celebrate  a  very  popular  festival  called  Piedigrotta. 
Features  of  this  festival  are  the  famous  Neapolitan  songs,  frequently 
inspired  by  revolting  sensuality,  and  orgies  to  which  the  people  of  the 
city  give  themselves  up.  Well,  in  the  old  times  of  classical  paganism, 
if  we  may  believe  the  Satiricon  of  Petronius  the  Arbitei',  in  the  very 
same  place,  at  the  entrance  to  the  same  tunnel,  Venus  was  honored  Avith 
obscene  rites.  Thus  you  see  the  festival  survives,  but  under  another 
name.  At  Reggio  Calabria  another  festival,  in  which  the  civic  authoi-i- 
ties  also  take  part,  is  held  in  honor  of  another  Virgin,  the  Madonna  of 
the  Hermit,  On  the  eve  of  the  festival,  from  the  surrounding  moun- 
tains come  down  groups  of  Calabrian  mountaineers  dressed  up  in  their 
ti'aditional  costumes  and  marching  to  the  music  of  crude  instruments. 
They  assemble  on  the  Square  in  front  of  the  church  and  to  the  sound 
of  their  pipes  dance  until  they  are  tired  out.  This  dance  has  a  religious 
character  and  is  generally  a  manifestation  of  gratitude  for  healing  ob- 
tained, or  for  good  bargains  made.  Is  this  not  also  a  survival  of  the 
religious  dances  which  were  so  common  among  the  pagans  of  Greater 
Greece?  I  might  multiijly  examples,  but  let  those  given  suffice  to  prove 
that  Popery  is  really  ancient  paganism,  which  for  political  reasons  has 
assumed  the  name  of  Christianity. 

Therefore  I  believe  I  do  not  exaggerate  wdien  I  affirm  that  among  the 
mission  fields  Italy  occupies  a  special  j^lace.  To  the  superficial  student 
it  may  seem  that  the  position  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  presence  of 
this  apostate  church  is  identical  with  that  of  the  primitive  church  in  the 
presence  of  classical  paganism.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  our  po- 
sition in  the  presence  of  the  papacy  is  the  most  difficult  that  has  been 
met  with  in  the  history  of  missions.  Ancient  paganism  declared  its 
belief  in  the  gods  of  Olympus  and  was  differentiated  from  Christianity 
both  in  substance  and  in  form.  Modern  paganism, — or  the  papacy. — 
believes  itself  to  be  the  onW  depositary  of  the  religious  truth  revealed  by 
Jesus  Christ.  From  this  point  of  view  the  Christianizing  of  Italy  ought 
to  appeal  to  the  heart  of  all  the  evangelicals  in  the  world.  Because  there 
especially  Christian  principles  have  been  prostituted  to  priestly  ambi- 
tion ;  in  Italy  Jesus  Christ  has  been  jDut  behind  the  pope. 

And  allow  me  to  express  in  this  gathering  the  keen  sense  of  gratitude 
which  I  cherish  in  my  soul,  and  which  is  shared  by  all  the  Baptists  in 
Italy,  towards  the  two  Baptist  societies  Avhich  maintain  missions  in  my 
countrj^, — the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  par- 
ticular the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  which  has  recently  shown 
special  interest  in  us  by  increasing  the  number  of  its  missionaries  and 
by  founding  a  theological  seminar}^  for  the  spiritual  and  intellectual 
preparation  of  young  men  for  the  ministry.  This  seminary  is  the  first 
affirmation  of  our  thought  in  Italy.  In  the  ten  years  of  its  existence  it 
has  reformed  our  ministerial  body,  it  has  given  to  our  missions  ener- 
getic young  men  who  take  theii-  place  worthily  beside  the  old  veterans 


256  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

of  Italian  evangelization.  This  year  it  has  removed  to  new  and  more 
commodious  premises  and  has  been  furnished  anew ;  the  number  of 
subjects  taught  has  been  increased  and  larger  opportunities  have  been 
afforded  to  the  students  to  enrich  their  culture.  The  seminary  is  en- 
trusted to  the  care  of  Dr.  Whittinghill,  who  leaves  nothing  undone  to 
secure  the  development  of  this  necessaiy  institution. 

Let  us  not  be  discouraged  by  the  small  results  of  the  past.  Let  us 
not  forget  that  Italy  is  the  home  of  the  papacy,  our  implacable  enemy. 
Let  us  lind  comfort  in  the  thought  that  at  present  a  great  revival  of  the 
religious  conscience  is  going  on  in  Italy.  This  moment  has  been  eagerly 
looked  for  as  we  remembered  the  prophetic  words  of  Giuseppe  Mazzini, 
one  of  our  greatest  thinkers :  ' '  He  who  shall  revive  the  religious  con- 
science of  the  Italians  will  do  more  good  to  Italy  than  he  who  revives 
their  political  conscience." 

The  church  of  Rome  is  at  present  in  the  throes  of  a  crisis  out  of 
which  she  can  hai-dly  come  scatheless.  Pius  X.,  a  pope  of  limited  mental 
calibre,  a  true  type  of  the  country  parish  priest,  in  these  first  years  of 
his  pontificate  has  done  his  church  more  harm  than  any  enemy  of  popery. 
Under  his  reign  has  come  about  the  separation  of  the  Church  from  the 
State  in  France,  in  Portugal,  and  we  hope  definitely  in  Spain  as  well. 
In  the  not-fai'-off  future,  when  the  papacy  shall  no  longer  afflict  hu- 
manity among  the  most  powerful  destroyers  of  popery  places  will  be 
found  Pius  X.  and  Cai'dinal  Mery  del  Val,  who  unwittingly  have 
worked  for  our  cause. 

But  the  most  promising  movement  is  that  known  as  "Modernism," 
which  is  increasing  daily  in  a  way  that  is  startling  to  the  church  of 
Romje.  This  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  to  speak  to  you  of  the 
essence  of  Modernism  and  of  its  function  in  Catholicism.  Assuredly 
it  has  its  defects,  but  in  my  opinion  it  has  the  great  virtue  of  preparing 
a  new  religious  mentality  in  the  Catholic  world,  placing  the  Scriptures 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  as  the  sole  n;le  of  faith.  The  Vatican  fears 
it  more  than  any  other  adversary,  because  its  activity  is  displayed  inside 
the  chvirch  by  means  of  young  and  cultured  priests.  Let  all  our  sym- 
pathy go  out  to  those  free  spirits  who  have  undertaken  a  difficult  but 
glorious  task,  the  reformation  of  the  church  of  Rome. 

For  us  Baptists  the  present  is  a  moment  of  historic  opportunity:  to 
allow  it  to  pass  unused  would  be  to  prove  ourselves  unfit  for  the  mis- 
sion received  from  our  Saviour. 

Generally  congresses  present  rather  a  conflict  of  ideas  than  an  expo- 
sition of  practical  proposals.  Permit  me  to  submit,  especially  to  you 
brethren  of  America,  a  proposal  which,  if  you  adopt  it,  might  very 
greatly  aid  in  the  evangelization  of  Italy.  In  your  large  industrial  cen- 
tres a  part  of  the  Italian  people  live  and  labor,  and  they  are  of  ten  of 
the  most  ignorant  and  superstitious  class.  I  know  that  work  is  being 
done  for  the  evangelization  of  this  immigrant  class,  but  with  all  respect 
I  submit  that  this  glorious  work  might  be  better  organized  so  as  to  help 
our  work  in  Italy.  There  should  be  an  understanding  between  your 
missionaries  at  work  in  America  and  ours  in  Italy.  The  advantages 
would  be  very  great.  Some  of  our  missions  in  the  south  of  Italy  have 
been  formed  by  Italians  converted  in  America.  Let  the  following  case 
serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  importance  of  the  work  among  the  Italians 
in  America  with  reference  to  our  work  in  Italy. 

Many  of  you  know  of  the  ferocious  persecution  to  which  our  eongre- 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  257. 

gation  at  Bisaccia  lias  been  subjected.  Last  year  our  missionary,  Dr. 
Stuart,  and  I  were  in  danger  of  being  stoned  to  death  by  about  three 
thousand  Catholic  fanatics.  All  our  appeals  to  the  Italian  authorities 
were  without  effect  and  we  only  obtained  protection  when  we  appealed 
for  the  intervention  of  the  Ambassador  of  the  United  States  in  Rome. 
This  aid  was  the  more  easy  to  secure  because  we  have  in  our  congrega- 
tion at  Bisaccia  about  a  dozen  members  who  were  converted  iri  America, 
— all  American  citizens,  who  on  this  occasion  took  advantage  of  their 
rights. 

But  many  such  converts  are  lost,  because  when  they  return  to  Italy 
we  know  nothing  about  them.  Why  not  form  a  Baptist  Emigration  Bu- 
reau with  headquarters  in  New  York  and  Naples,  to  look  after  this  class 
and  put  us  in  communication  with  the  moving  mass  of  immigrants  and 
if  possible  get  them  into  our  churches? 

The  multiplication  of  such  eases  as  that  of  Bisaccia  would  be  an  in- 
valuable contribution  to  the  evangelization  of  Italy,  and  it  is  in  the 
POWER  OF  American  Baptists  to  make  such  a  contribution. 

Brethren  of  America :  in  the  past  Italy  has  always  looked  to  you, 
from  Christopher  Columbus  to  Giuseppe  Garibaldi;  to-day  she  gives  you 
her  art,  her  poetry,  her  music,  do  you  in  exchange  give  her  more  sympa- 
thy, give  her  of  your  spirituality,  let  her  know  the  power  of  that 
Christian  faith  which  has  given  you,  and  in  virtue  of  which  you  retain, 
your  liberty. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  It  may  interest  you  to  know  that  a  brother  of  Dr.  Sca- 
lera,  whose  paper  translated  has  just  been  read,  is  at  this  moment  in  the 
employ  of  the  Baptist  City  Mission  Society  of  New  York  City. 

We  know  how  many  noble  men  have  come  to  us  from  Sweden;  they 
are  among  our  best  immigrants  in  America  to-day.  I  have  the  honor  and 
pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  a  representative  of  the  beautiful  city  of 
Stockholm  in  Sweden,  Rev.  C.  E.  Benander,  who  will  speak  to  us  for 
his  country. 

Rev.  C.  E.  Benander  was  received  with  applause. 

THE  CHRISTIANIZING  OF  THE  WORLD.— SWEDEN. 

By  Rev.  C.  E.  BENANDER,  Principal  of  the  Bethel  Seminary. 
Stockholm,  Sweden. 

In  speaking  of  Baptist  work  and  influence  as  one  of  the  agencies  for 
the  furtherance  of  true  Christian  life  and  principles  in  our  home-land,  we 
deem  it  befitting  at  the  outset  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Sweden 
has  been,  and  is  still,  to  some  extent,  an  American  Baptist  mission  field. 
As  early  as  1855  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  of  this  city, 
great  in  its  many  noble  achievements  for  the  extension  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  upon  earth,  was  led  to  take  loving  and  supporting  care  of  the 
young  Baptist  child  in  our  country,  which  at  the  time  was  poor,  despised, 
and  persecuted. 

In  1866  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  now  the  American 

17 


258  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society,  which,  as  we  all  know,  is  one  of  the 
regiments  of  honor  in  our  Lord's  great  and  victorious  army  of  missions, 
planted  its  benign  banner  in  Sweden.  The  substantial  support  of  the 
Union  at  once  called  into  existence  our  Seminary  for  the  education  of 
ministers,  and  also  furnished  means  for  sending  out  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  gospel  messengers  in  various  provinces.  Thus  the  work,  which 
was  already  begun,  could  be  advanced  with  increased  force  and  effici- 
ency. Through  the  gracious  blessing  of  God  it  was  attended  by  an  al- 
most unequalled  success,  to  which  the  history  of  our  mission  is  known  to 
bear  abundant  testimony.  The  work  of  sowing  and  reaping  has  been  in- 
terchanging incessantly  on  the  Swedish  field. 

From  this  field  my  fellow-delegates  and  I  have  come  to  this  World 
Congress  with  hearts  thrilling  with  harvest  joy.  Mindful  of  our  Lord's 
words,  ''That  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  may  rejoice  together," 
we  would  especially  call  upon  the  representatives  of  the  American  Bap- 
tist Foreign  Mission  Society  and  the  American  Baptist  Publication  So- 
ciety to  share  this  joy  with  us.  The  seed,  sown  under  the  auspices  of 
these  societies  in  Swedish  ground,  is  of  the  true  mustard  species  of  the 
parable,  and  through  the  grace  of  God  the  tree  has  already  grown  large 
and  rich  in  branches. 

OUR  PIONEERS. 

Captain  G.  W.  Schroeder,  of  the  Mariners'  Baptist  church,  New  York 
City,  was  the  first  Baptist  witness  in  Sweden.  He  made  a  brief  visit  to 
his  native  land  in  1845.  Among  others  he  then  met  was  Mr.  F.  0.  Nil- 
son,  the  American  Seamen's  Friend  Society's  missionary  at  Gothenburgh, 
and  he  called  his  attention  to  the  question  of  New  Testament  baptism. 
Mr.  Nilson  studied  the  Scriptures  and  became  convinced  that  the  Bap- 
tist views  were  scriptural.  He  wished  to  be  baptized,  but  there  was  no 
Baptist  in  Sweden  to  baptize  him.  He  therefore  went  to  Hamburg  and 
was  buried  with  Christ  in  baptism  through  the  ministration  of  Rev.  J.  G. 
Oncken.     Thi%  was  in  1847. 

One  year  after  his  baptism  Mr.  Nilson  had  the  joy  of  seeing  a  little 
group  of  five  disciples  of  Christ  baptized  by  Rev.  A.  P.  Forster,  from 
Denmark.  On  the  same  occasion  he  organized  the  little  band  of  six  im- 
mersed believers  into  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Sweden. 

Mr.  Nilson  continued  to  preach  the  gospel  and  did  not  conceal  his  Bap- 
tist views.  In  the  course  of  time  more  converts  were  baptized  and  added 
to  the  church.  A  storm  of  bigotted  hatred  soon  broke  loose  upon  the  lit- 
tle flock  and  its  pastor,  and  thej'  were  violently  assailed  from  all  sides. 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  religious  condition  in  Protestant  Sweden  at 
that  time,  as  regards  both  public  sentiment  and  legal  restrictions,  that 
Mr.  Nilson  was  accused  of  heresy  by  church  authorities  and  sentenced 
to  banishment  by  the  criminal  courts  in  all  instances,  for  no  other  crime 
than  his  being  a  Baptist  in  faith  and  practice.  As  an  exile  he  stayed  in 
Denmark,  for  some  time  acting  as  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Co- 
penhagen.   Later  he  found  refuge  here  in  the  United  States. 

Rev.  A.  Wiberg,  a  young  and  promising  clergyman  of  the  State  Church, 
was  at  this  time  led  to  adopt  Baptist  views  and  for  conscience'  sake  to 
resign  his  position  in  the  Church.  Being  in  poor  health,  he  was  advised 
by  a  physician  to  undertake  a  voyage  to  America.  The  vessel  stopped  at 
Copenhagen  for  a  couple  of  days,  and  Mr.  Wiberg  availed  himself  of  the 


Tliui-.silay.  .hiiie  22.]        UECOIW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  259 

opportunity  to  visit  Mr.  Nilson  and  expressed  his  desire  to  be  baptized. 
His  request  was  granted,  and  the  following  night  he  was  baptized. 

While  in  America,  and  right  here  in  this  city,  Mr.  Wiberg  wrote  his 
excellent  work  on  Cliristian  baptism,  which  was  published  in  English  in 
this  country  at  the  same  time  it  was  published  in  Swedish  in  the  home- 
land of  the  author.  This  book  did  much  to  clear  the  views  and  further 
our  cause  in  Sweden.  Enriched  in  Christian  knowledge  and  experience, 
Mr.  Wiberg  returned  to  his  native  country,  where  he  through  faithful 
and  successful  service  for  the  Lord  established  his  memory  in  our  his- 
tory as  foremost  among  our  honored  fathers.  In  his  manifold  work  he 
was  ably  assisted  by  his  noble  wife,  a  worthy  representative  of  the  Bap- 
tist sisterhood  of  Philadelphia.  Her  maiden  name  was  Miss  Caroline 
Lintemuth. 

Owing  to  the  persecution  to  which  the  few  Baptists  in  the  home-land 
were  subjected,  many  of  them  emigrated  to  America,  but  others  re- 
mained, witnessing  for  the  Lord  and  His  truth,  and  enduring  hardship 
for  His  sake. 

Contemporaneously  with  Mr.  Nilson 's  banishment  another  of  our  pio- 
neers came  over  to  this  country  to  be  baptized  and  ordained  for  the  min- 
istry. We  refer  to  Rev.  Gustaf  Palmquist.  Together  with  Mr.  Nilson  he 
became  the  founder  and  first  organizer  of  Swedish  Baptist  work  in  the 
United  States.  Later,  when  the  restrictions  against  dissenters  had  been 
somewhat  mitigated  through  actions  of  the  Swedish  Parliament  or  Diet, 
both  of  them  returned  home  and  served  as  pastors;  Mr.  Palmquist  in 
Stockholm  and  Mr.  Nilson  in  Gothenburgh.  The  latter,  who  came  back 
in  1860,  upon  his  return  sought  and  obtained  royal  pardon,  by  which  the 
sentence  of  banishment  was  nullified. 

In  1866  our  esteemed  veteran,  Rev.  K.  0.  Broady,  D.  D.,  was  appointed 
as  a  missionary  to  Sweden  by  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union 
for  the  special  purpose  of  establishing  and  presiding  over  a  college  to  ed- 
ucate young  men  for  the  ministry.  He  was  born  in  Sweden,  but  gained 
his  early  spiritual  experience  and  acquired  his  education  in  America, 
being  a  graduate  of  Colgate  University.  Dr.  Broady  has  been  the  right 
man  in  the  right  place  and  has  honored  himself  and  the  great  Society  he 
is  serving  through  ardent  work  as  an  excellent  educator  and  a  great 
preacher.  But  for  the  lack  of  sufficient  strength  he  would  have  been  here 
to  greet  the  Congress  and  occupy  his  place  among  the  honored  veterans 
from  various  countries,  who  are  the  pride  of  recent  Baptist  history  and 
of  this  Assembly.  Allow  me  to  convey  to  you  all  most  cordial  greetings 
from  Dr.  Broady. 

After  forty-five  years  of  service  in  Stockholm  he  is  still,  in  his 
eightieth  year,  active  as  a  teacher  in  our  Seminary. 

If  time  did  not  fail  us,  we  would  speak  of  men  like  Prof.  A.  Drake, 
D.  D..  for  forty  years  the  able  and  beloved  co-worker  with  Dr.  Broady 
in  the  Bethel  Seminary;  of  Rev.  Johannes  Palmquist,  a  pioneer  in  evan- 
gelistic work,  and  of  his  brother,  Mr.  P.  Palmquist,  our  Sunday-school 
pioneer;  of  Rev.  Wilhelm  Lindblom,  for  tliirty-five  years  the  eminent 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Stockholm;  of  Rev.  T.  Trube,  D. 
D.,  the  popular  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Gotlienburgh,  who 
held  the  same  pastorate  for  forty-two  years;  of  the  faithful  and  amiable 
pastor.  Rev.  A.  E.  Backman ;  of  Prof.  C.  G.  Lagergren,  D.  D.,  who  in  his 
earlier  days  took  a  leading  part  in  our  work  in  Sweden,  and  later  has  dis- 
tinguished himself  as  the  Dean  of  the  Swedish  department  of  the  Di- 


260  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

vinity  School  of  Chicago  University;  of  Rev.  E.  Wingren,  the  veteran 
editor  of  the  Swedish  Baptist  paper,  ''Nya  Veckoposten, "  Chicago,  111.; 
of  Rev.  S.  Svenson,  who  worked  and  suffered  for  the  Lord  in  Sweden, 
and  who  afterwards  has  for  many  years  served  his  Master  among  the 
Swedes  in  this  city  of  Philadelphia. 

The  list  could  be  prolonged,  but  we  must  forbear.  These  men,  and 
many  others  of  like  spirit  and  purpose,  have  been  used  by  God  as  instru- 
mental in  bringing  about  the  great  results  of  the  Baptist  mission  in  Swe- 
den. 

OUR  AGENCIES. 

The  Bethel  Theological  Seminary  of  Stockholm  has  been  an  institu- 
tion of  invaluable  importance  for  the  progress  of  our  cause  in  Sweden. 
It  has  sent  out  about  four  hundred  young  men  trained  for  the  ministry 
of  the  gospel,  and,  with  comparatively  few  exceptions,  they  have  proved 
themselves  ably  fitted  for  the  work.  In  view  of  our  experience  it  is  quite 
evident  that  a  school  of  this  kind  is  indispensable  for  progressive  mis- 
sion work  in  any  country. 

The  twenty-one  Associations  of  Baptist  churches  in  Sweden  are  all 
carrying  on  home  mission  work,  according  to  their  resources  and  possi- 
bilities. In  a  few  localities  there  are  special  mission  societies  in  opera- 
tion. 

The  General  Committee  for  Home  Mission,  whose  secretary  is  Rev.  J. 
A.  Borgstrom,  is  supporting  evangelists  and  sustaining  weak  churches. 

The  Sunday-school  Committee,  secretary,  Prof.  G.  A.  Gustafson,  is 
charged  with  the  commission  of  promoting  work  among  Sunday-schools, 
and  Young  People's  Societies. 

Through  the  Committee  for  Foreign  Mission,  secretary.  Rev.  J.  By- 
strom,  our  churches  sustain  missions  in  China,  Spain,  Finland,  and 
Russia.  The  annual  contributions  for  foreign  mission  work  from  the 
Swedish  Baptists  already  exceed  the  largest  amount  ever  obtained  in  one 
year  from  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  in  the  past.  A  fact 
which  tells  that  while  the  funds  expended  in  our  country  have  been  the 
means  of  untold  blessing  to  thousands,  they  are  not  lost  to  the  heathen 
fields,  but  rather  prove  to  be  a  good  investment  in  their  interest. 

W-e  have  also  a  Publication  Committee,  but  we  regret  to  say  that  the 
book  concern  under  its  auspices  is  comparatively  small.  Still  a  consid- 
erable amount  of  good  literature  is  annually  distributed. 

A  Young  People's  Union,  formed  in  recent  years,  is  an  agency  growing 
in  strength  and  readiness  to  work  for  the  Lord  with  the  view  of  bringing 
the  youth  of  the  country  into  His  kingdom. 

Our  papers  and  periodicals  have  greatly  promoted  our  interests  and 
strengthened  our  cause.  The  editors  have  been  talented  men  of  devout 
spirit  and  sound  doctrine,  whose  testimony  has  been  for  truth  and  right- 
eousness with  wisdom  and  consistency. 

During  the  earlier  period  of  our  history,  ''Evangelisten,"  edited  by 
Rev.  A.  Wiberg  and  Dr.  A.  Drake,  was  the  organ  of  our  mission.  Later 
the  same  paper  was  edited  by  Prof.  C.  G.  Lagergren,  D.  D. 

In  1869  a  weekly  paper,  "Weckoposten,"  was  started,  which  has  ever 
since  been  our  denominational  organ.  For  many  years  Dr.  Drake  was 
the  efficient  editor,  until  he  was  succeeded  by  our  worthy  brethren.  Rev. 


Tliursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINCfi.  261 

J.  A.  Borgstrom  and  J.  Bystrom,  who  still  hold  the  impoi'tant  and  re- 
sponsible function  as  editors. 

A  monthly  periodical  ' '  SondagsskoUararen, "  containing  expositoiy 
notes  for  Sunday-school  teachers,  is  well  edited  by  Prof.  John  Cederoth. 
Rev.  K.  A.  Moden  fills  the  craving  position  of  being  editor  for  the  organ 
of  our  Young  Peojile's  Union.  There  are  also  two  Sunday-school  papers 
for  the  children. 

All  these  agencies  mentioned  and  also  others  which  time  does  not  per- 
mit us  to  mention  have  worked  together  for  the  spread  of  the  truth  and 
the  perfecting  of  the  saints. 

OUR  GROWTH  IN   NUMBERS. 

Wie  referred  in  the  beginning  to  reaping  and  harvest  joy.  Let  us  now, 
with  a  few  numbers,  illustrate  the  growth  and  ingathering  on  our 
field.  In  1851,  the  year  of  Rev.  F.  0.  Nilson's  banishment,  there  were  52 
Baptists  and  one  church  in  Sweden.  Ten  years  later,  or  in  1861,  there 
were  116  churches  and  4,930  members.  In  1871  the  churches  numbered 
219,  the  members  8,780,  and  the  Sunday-school  scholars  6,073.  January 
1,  1881,  the  churches  counted  303,  the  members  19,297,  and  the  Sunday- 
school  scholars  14,776.  In  1891  there  were  524  churches,  34,814  mem- 
bers, and  33,825  Sunday-school  scholars.  Our  statistics  for  1911  show 
616  churches,  52,450  members,  and  61,154  Sunday-school  scholars. 

Our  venerable  brother,  Captain  Schroeder,  of  New  York  City,  who  re- 
cently celebrated  his  90th  birthday,  must  be  overjoyed  as  he  contem- 
plates the  progress  of  our  mission  and  comj^ares  present  results  with  the 
day  of  small  beginnings,  when  he  was  sowing  the  first  seeds  of  Baptist 
thought  in  his  native  Sweden.  With  him  we  all  praise  God,  who  has  so 
wonderfully  manifested  His  power  and  abundantly  bestowed  His  bless- 
ing upon  us  to  the  glory  of  His  name. 

PRESENT  ASPECT   OF  OUR  MISSION. 

The  population  of  Sweden  is  five  and  a  half  millions.  This,  divided 
with  the  total  number  of  Baptists  in  the  country,  makes  one  Baptist  to 
every  105  persons.  If  we  then  count  our  Sunday-school  scholars  and  the 
members  of  our  Young  People's  societies,  who  are  not  church-members, 
it  becomes  evident  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  Swedish  people 
is  brought  under  Baptist  influence. 

This  year  we  have  in  the  Bethel  Seminary  fifty-eight  students  who  are 
all  studying  for  the  ministry.  Some  of  them  are  volunteers  for  the 
foreign  field,  ready  to  go  if  oppoi'tunity  opens  to  them,  while  the  others 
will  enter  the  ranks  of  God's  messengers  on  the  home  field. 

Every  week  the  word  of  God  is  proclaimed  in  564  houses  of  worship. 
The  staff  of  ministers  constanth'  devoting  themselves  to  the  work  is  406, 
and  we  have  about  500  local  preachers  besides. 

Sunday  after  Sunday  61,000  Sunday-school  scholars  are  taught  in 
1,181  schools  by  4,656  teachers,  and  we  have  506  Young  People's  Socie- 
ties with  a  total  membership  of  22,007. 

The  sentiment  among  our  people  regarding  Baptists  and  their  views 
has  entirely  changed  in  the  course  of  years.  It  is  true,  there  are  sections 
of  the  country  where  the  spirit  of  bigotry  and  intolerance  still  prevails; 


262  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

but  in  general,  we  are  esteemed  as  a  Christian  people  worthy  of  respect 
and  confidence. 

Permit  me  to  illustrate  with  a  little  incident  the  difference  between 
the  estimation  of  a  Baptist  in  Sweden  sixty  years  ago  and  at  the  present 
time.  Then  Mr.  Nilson  was  compelled  to  leave  the  country  as  an  exile 
and  seek  refuge  here  in  the  United  States.  Now  our  Foreign  Mission 
Secretary,  Rev.  J.  Bystrom,  who  is  a  member  of  the  Swedish  Parliament, 
is  prevented  from  attending  this  Congress,  mainly  because  Sweden 
claims  his  services  as  one  of  the  auditors  of  the  State  Treasuries. 

Our  preachers  have  won  for  themselves  popular  regard,  and  the  ser- 
vices are  generally  attended  by  good  and  attentive  audiences.  The  total 
addition  of  members  last  year  through  baptism  and  restoration  was 
three  thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-six. 

Towards  our  brethren  in  the  Lord  of  other  denominations  we  sustain 
fraternal  relations  and  co-operate  with  them  in  several  lines  of  work, 
where  common  interests  merge. 

As  we  contemplate  the  progress  and  development  of  our  mission  we 
have  occasion  not  only  to  praise  the  Lord  for  the  great  things  He  has 
done  for  us,  but  also  to  pause  in  reverence  before  the  solemn  fact  that 
our  obligations  have  increased  according  to  the  measure  of  blessings  ob- 
tained. Thus  conscious  of  God's  claim  upon  us  with  regard  to  the  fu- 
ture and  trusting  in  His  power,  we  are  intent  on  extended  work  among 
our  own  people,  and  we  are  willing  to  do  our  share  in  joint  efforts  to 
evangelize  the  whole  world. 

Dr.  Clifford:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  understand  that  before  I  came  into 
this  meeting  there  was  presented  to  this  gathering  to-night  the  report 
of  the  Committee  on  Nominations,  and  I  am  delighted  to  have  the  op- 
portunity of  sharing  in  the  nomination  and  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  Dr. 
MacArthur  is  to  succeed  me  as  president  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance. 
I  am  sorry  I  was  away  when  that  announcement  was  made.  The  proper 
time,  of  course,  for  me  to  express  what  I  am  now  saying  was  then,  but 
I  have  had  a  somewhat  heavy  week  and  a  somewhat  heavy  day.  I  be- 
gan this  morning  shouting  as  loudly  as  I  could,  ''God  Save  the  King," 
and  though  I  am  in  America  I  am  still  an  Englishman,  and  notwith- 
standing any  allusions  that  my  friend  may  make  as  to  my  decadent 
loyalty  or  decadent  republicanism,  I  have  a  beautiful  and  harmonious 
blend  of  republican  principle  with  supreme  loyalty  to  the  symbol  of 
sovereignty  over  the  British  Empire,  King  George  V.  and  his  Queen 
Mary.  Then  next  I  sat  through  the  proceedings  this  morning.  I  have 
also  had  the  opportunity  of  going  to  Crozer,  and  since  then — will  you 
believe  it — I  have  been  to  sleep,  and  in  my  judgment  that  is  about  the 
best  thing  I  have  done  to-day. 

But  I  cannot  let  this  opportunity  pass  without  having  the  privilege, 
claiming  it  from  Dr.  MacArthur,  of  saying  how  completely  and  un- 
feignedly  I  rejoice  in  his  accession  by  and  by  to  the  profits,  immunities, 
and  immense  rewards  belonging  to  this  position  of  President  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance.  I  have  known  Dr.  MacArthur  since  1898.  As 
I  passed  through  Canada  I  found  his  name  was  there  a  household  word. 
I   have   had   the   opportunity   of   preaching   in   the   building   where   the 


Thursday,  June  22. J       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  263 

church  gathers  over  which  he  has  presided  for  a  considerable  time,  I 
think  it  is  some  forty-two  years.  By  and  by  he  will  be  as  young  as  I 
am.  I  am  still  ten  years  ahead  of  him  and  a  little  more.  I  rejoice  in 
Dr.  MacArthur's  accession  to  this  position;  we  know  his  loyalty  to  Bap- 
tist principles,  his  devotion  to  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  his 
interest,  deep  and  full,  in  the  movement  for  peace,  for  justice,  for 
righteousness,  throughout  all  realms.  And  I  pray  as  he  comes  to  this 
position  God's  blessing  may  rest  upon  him  abundantly,  so  that  he  may 
find  in  it  as  I  have  found,  abundant  work.  Activity  is  longevity,  that 
is  my  theory,  the  way  to  live  long  is  to  be  always  at  it,  and  always  at  it 
with  your  full  strength.  Well,  I  pray  that  Dr.  MacArthur  may  find 
in  this  position  abundant  activity  and  through  the  blessing  of  God  rest- 
ing upon  his  labors,  this  latest  development  of  Baptist  life,  the  creation 
of  this  Baptist  World  Alliance  by  the  Head  of  the  Church  may  during 
the  next  five  years  be  abundantly  prospered  for  the  interests  of  man 
everywhere  and  thus  for  the  glory  of  God.     (Applause.) 

The  Chairman  :  I  thank  Dr.  Clifford  for  his  very  kind  words.  It  may 
interest  all  of  you  to  know  that  Captain  Schroeder,  to  whom  Mr.  Benan- 
der  referred  so  appreciativelj'^,  is  still  active.  He  is  ninety  years  old, 
and  the  Baptist  Ministers'  Conference  in  New  York  gave  him  a  great 
reception  on  his  ninetieth  birthday,  and  he  promised  us  that  he  would 
be  present  with  us  on  his  one  hundredth  birthday. 

The  beloved  apostle  John,  as  we  have  long  known  him,  and  as  we  have 
always  considered  him,  will  now  occupy  a  few  minutes  according  to  his 
pleasure. 

Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer:  It  is  very  kind;  I  do  not  know  where  Dr.  MacAr- 
thur has  been  to-day,  but  I  feel  very  much  more  like  Andrew  than  John, 
Andrew  who  found  a  lad  with  five  barley  loaves  and  two  small  fishes.  1 
have  been  looking  for  that  lad  all  this  day.  I  think  I  found  him  this 
morning;  I  found  three  loaves  and  one  fish  and  a  half,  and  I  would 
uncommonly  like  to-night  to  finish  my  work.  I  cannot  sleep  like  my 
friend  here,  he  can  sleep  on  a  moment's  notice.  When  I  have  a  heavy 
job  like  this  on,  I  can't  sleep.  It  you  want  me  to  sleep  help  me  to  finish 
my  bit  of  work,  and  help  me  to  get  the  other  two  loaves  to-night.  So  far 
as  I  can  make  out,  they  have  been  working  hard  all  the  time  since  this 
morning's  session,  we  made  to-day  by  God's  grace  sixty-six  thousand  dol- 
lars. I  think  that  is  fine  evidence  of  the  way  that  God  Almighty  pre- 
pared our  plans.  I  was  reading  this  morning  about  a  thing  being  done 
suddenly,  and  I  don't  think  that  even  Hezekiah  did  it  much  quicker  than 
we  did,  or  David  the  King.  He  took  all  those  years  to  get  that  mone^ 
ready.  We  did  our  little  in  Great  Britain  last  October,  and  now  some 
of  you  big  brothers  and  some  of  our  Englishmen  together  have  done 
noble  work;  but  all  to-day,  I  understand,  men  have  been  talking  to  one 
another  and  saying,  "I  am  sorry  I  was  not  in  it,"  and  States  have  been 
stating,  "Well,  we  must  pull  up;  we  can  not  be  put  out  by  our  sister 


264  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

State,"  and  all  these  ladies  say,  "If  you  cannot  make  the  thing  up,  we 
are  going  to  give  our  bracelets  and  jewelry"- — and  I  am  quite  prepared 
to  receive  it,  mind  you.  We  would  rather  have  the  cash,  because  the 
jewelry  does  not  reckon  up  quite  so  well  when  you  come  to  sell  it.  We 
won't  go  home  for  awhile.  We  are  going  to  have  a  good  time  and  we 
are  going  to  try  and  finish  this  work. 

Dr.  Prestridge:  Brother  Doycheff  tells  me  a  good  brother  in  his 
church  who  is  worth  about  ten  thousand  dollars  has  made  his  will.  The 
law  allows  him  to  give  only  half  of  his  property  to  religious  purposes 
and  he  has  dedicated  and  set  apart  to  God  for  the  church  of  that  place 
five  thousand  dollars.  My  heart  beats  fast.  If  they  are  going  to  give 
that  way  over  there,  how  are  we  to  give?  One  brother  said  to-day,  who 
made  a  liberal  gift,  one  that  would  make  our  hearts  beat,  if  he  had  un- 
derstood exactly  how  this  was,  he  would  have  given  one  thousand  dol- 
lars. If  this  paper  had  been  read  before  that  time  we  would  have  had 
one  thousand  dollars  more  this  morning.  This  is  the  paper  I  want  to 
read,  the  action  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  relative  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  Baptist  Theological  Seminary  in  Europe.  They  en^ 
dorsed  this  movement  and  appointed  a  committee  of  fifty  members  to 
act  with  power  and  absolute  authority  and  this  is  their  agreement  and 
report : 

ACTION   OP  THE   COMMITTEE  APPOINTED   BY  THE      SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVEN- 
TION  RELATIVE    TO   THE    ESTABLISHMENT   OP   A   BAPTIST 
THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOL  IN   EUROPE. 

Resolution  offered  by  Dr.  Lunsford : 

Resolved,  That  the  following  paper  presented  by  the  sub-committee 
of  the  committee  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  to  consider  along 
with  others  the  establishment  of  a  Theological  Seminary  on  the  Conti- 
nent of  Europe  be  adopted  as  the  sense  and  recommendation  of  the  large 
committee,  and  that  the  sub-committee  be  authorized  to  so  present  it  in 
conference  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Baptist  World  Alli- 
ance.    Passed. 

EUROPEAN    BAPTIST   COLLEGE. 

(Specially  for  the  training  of  Baptist  Pastors  and  Evangelists  in  South- 
ern and  Southeastern  Europe.) 

1.  That  the  property  be  placed  in  trust  in  persons  to  be  nominated 
by  the  Southern  and  Northern  Baptist  Conventions  of  America. 

2.  That  the  management  be  under  a  committee  of  British  and  Ameri- 
cans to  be  appointed  by  the  trustees. 

3.  That  the  president  and  professors  be  appointed  by  the  manage- 
ment committee. 

4.  That  the  British  and  American  Executive  Committee  send  a  depu- 
tation to  seek  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  Czar  for  the  establishment  of 


Thursday,  June  22.]       RECORD  OF  PROCIJEDTSGS.  265 

this  college  on  Russian  soil,  and  failing  such  consent  that  it  shall  be  es- 
tablished in  some  convenient  place  agreed  upon  by  the  British  and  Amer- 
ican Executive  Committee  of  the  World  Alliance. 

5.  That  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Vining,  as  the  American  Commissioner,  be 
requested  to  obtain  promises  for  $125,000  toward  the  building  within  the 
next  six  months  in  America  and  Canada.  It  is  suggested  that  the  North- 
ern Convention  contribute  $50,000,  and  the  Southern  Convention  $50,000. 

6.  Any  sum  left  over  after  the  provision  of  the  building  be  used  for 
maintenance,  and  that  a  guarantee  be  given  for  five  years  of  one-third 
each  of  the  cost  of  maintenance  up  to  $6,000  each  bj'  the  American 
(Northern)  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society,  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Convention,  and  the  British  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 

RESOLUTION    OFFERED    BY    DR.    WHITE. 

Resolved,  That  in  case  the  Foreign  Mission  Boards  of  the  Northern 
Baptist  Convention  and  the  British  Baptists  shall  agree  to  the  co-opera- 
tion outlined  in  the  paper  just  passed,  this  committee  will  recommend. 
That  our  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
make  the  necessary  appropriation  to  carry  out  the  scheme  of  co-opera- 
tion as  to  maintenance.     Passed. 

Upon  a  motion  by  Dr.  Prestridge  the  following  were  appointed  trus- 
tees until  the  next  meeting  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention : 

Joshua  Levering,  J.  M.  Frost,  George  Norton,  T.  B.  Ray,  E.  W,  Ste- 
phens, Z.  T.  Cody,  Geo.  W.  Truett,  A.  T.  Robertson,  John  E.  White,  W. 
W.  Landrum. 

Brethren,  the  whole  thing  is  harmonious  and  agreed,  and  we  have 
given  our  hearts  to  it  and  we  are  one  upon  the  whole  matter.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Mr.  Meyer:  You  see  what  a  very  great  comfort  we  have  in  knowing 
that  the  appropriation  which  is  going  to  be  made  is  for  the  up-keep  of 
the  university.  It  would  be  a  very  poor  thing  to  put  up  a  university 
and  choose  teachers  and  so  on  unless  Ave  have  some  outlook  for  the  up- 
keep, and  the  very  noble  appropriation  which  is  proposed  by  the  North- 
em  and  Southern  and  Bi-itish  Conventions  is  going  to  guarantee  the  up.- 
keep  of  this  institution  for  at  least  five  years.  Now,  of  course,  we  want 
to  get  the  building  itself  out  of  the  road,  and  as  you  heard  from  Dr. 
Prestridge,  we  are  able  to  go  up  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars,  but  we  want  to  get  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  if  we 
can  right  now  in  order  to  put  the  building  up  and  have  done  with  it. 
With  the  security  that  we  have  as  to  the  up-keep,  it  is  in  good  safe 
keeping  through  God's  good  hand.  So  now  we  are  going  ahead  and  are 
going  to  try  and  finish  this  building.     We  are  going  to  keep  the  thing 


266  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

open  all  the  time  till  Ave  break  up,  but  I  would  like  to  get  the  bulk  of 
it  to-night,  and,  if  possible,  the  whole. 
Canvass  for  subscriptions  was  resumed. 

Dr.  McConnell,  of  Texas,  suggested  that  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention undertake  to  provide  the  amount  required  to  make  up  the  differ- 
ence between  the  amounts  subscribed  to-day  by  members  of  the  South- 
ern Convention  and  the  total  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  assigned  to  that 
Convention.  This  suggestion  was  endorsed  by  a  standing  vote  of  the 
members  present  from  the  Southern  Convention. 

It  was  stated  that  this  suggestion  was  made  in  the  expectation  that 
the  Northern  Convention  would  take  similar  action.  Dr.  Haslam,  of 
Philadelphia,  suggested  that  as  there  had  been  no  opportunity  of  con- 
sidering the  proposition,  ten  minutes  to-morrow  morning  be  devoted  to 
the  suggestion,  thus  allowing  for  consideration  meantime. 

Mr.  Prestridge  moved  that  ten  minutes  be  set  aside  to-morrow  morn- 
ing for  this  purpose. 

The  following  reply  from  King  George  and  Queen  Mary  was  read  by 
Secretary  Shakespeare,  the  audience  standing  to  receive  the  message: 
"Their  Majesties  desire  to  thank  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  for  their 
telegram  of  good  wishes." 

After  singing  the  Doxology  and  prayer  by  Dr.  Meyer,  the  meeting 
adjourned. 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  267 


NINTH   SESSION 


Friday  Morning,  June  23,  1911. 

Session  opened  at  9.30  A.  M.,  with  devotional  service  led  by  Rev.  T. 
C,  Walker,  of  Georgia. 

Hymn,  ''AH  the  Way  My  Saviour  Leads  Me." 

Dr.  MacArthur  :  Dr.  Walker  was  for  a  number  of  years  pastor  of 
the  Mount  Olivet  Baptist  church  of  New  York  City.  He  was  my  near 
neighbor.  He  did  a  great  work  in  New  York;  we  never  had  a  pastor, 
white  or  black,  who  baptized  so  many  people  in  such  a  brief  space  of  time 
as  did  Dr.  Walker.  He  was  honored  in  that  city  by  being  invited  to 
speak  on  great  public  occasions,  the  only  man  of  his  race  (Negro)  at 
that  time  who  received  such  honor  in  that  city. 

Dr.  Walker  read  Luke  5:  1-11.  We  have  two  or  three  very  striking 
lessons  brought  to  us  from  this  Scripture  narrative.  They  may  be  briefly 
summed  up  in  four  statements.  First,  these  disciples  had  failed,  they 
had  fished  all  night  and  caught  nothing.  Our  Lord  on  this  occasion 
wanted  to  teach  them  the  lesson  of  faith,  because  he  was  about  to 
change  their  occupation  from  catching  fish  to  catching  men,  and  he  want- 
ed men  caught  alive  and  saved  for  service,  and  in  their  future  occupa- 
tions they  were  to  succeed  by  the  exercise  of  faith,  and  through  their 
failure  they  learned  to  exercise  faith.  They  failed.  The  night  previous 
Jesus  was  not  with  them.  There  is  no  failure  when  Jesus  is  present; 
we  never  fail  when  we  are  conscious  of  Divine  Presence.  Spiritual  faith 
is  a  God-given  grace;  it  is  invincible,  it  is  unconquerable.  It  fights  bat- 
tles and  wins  victories.  It  is  unlimited  and  omnipotent  when  it  identifies 
itself  with  Jehovah. 

The  next  lesson  we  learn  is  fullness.  From  the  exercise  of  faith  they 
received  fullness,  they  got  so  many  fish  their  nets  brake,  and  this  was 
the  result  of  the  exercise  of  faith.  It  was  also  a  reward,  courtesy  shown 
to  Peter  for  the  loan  of  his  ship  as  a  pulpit  out  of  which  Christ  preached 
to  those  on  the  bank.  The  fourth  lesson  is  fellowship.  They  saw  their 
partners  up  the  shore  and  beckoned  to  them  to  help.  Out  of  failure 
we  leam  the  lesson  of  faith ;  out  of  our  faith  we  receive  fullness,  and  out 
of  fullness  we  learn  the  lesson  of  true  fellowship,  and  this  is  practical 
Christianity,  the  world's  greatest  need.  Practical  Christianity  is  the 
Christ  life  put  into  practice,  the  exemplification  of  the  character  and  life 
of  Christ  in  his  people.  Practical  Christianity  will  right  all  wrongs  and 
settle  amicably  all  difficulties,  solve  all  problems,  revolutionize  public 
opinion,  and  produce  a  perfect  civilization.  I  frequently  say  that  prac- 
tical Christianity  is  a  live  wire. 

Led  in  prayer. 

Hymn,  "Jesus  Calls  Us  O'er  the  Tumult." 


268  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Dr.  MacArthur  :  I  have  very  great  pleasure  in  presenting  as  the  spe- 
cial chairman  of  this  morning  our  honored  friend  and  brother,  Sir 
George  W.  Maealpine,  of  England.  The  program  this  morning,  as  you  will 
observe,  is  in  no  small  part  the  program  of  the  Macs.  The  land  of  brown 
heath  and  shaggy  wood  either  directly  or  indirectly  is  strikingly  repre- 
sented on  this  progTam  this  morning.  Nova  Scotia,  Ontario,  and  Eng- 
land are  represented  in  the  various  speakers.  I  am  sure  that  we  give  a 
most  cordial  welcome  to  our  country  and  to  this  city  and  platform  to 
our  brother  Sir  George  W.  Maealpine,  who  is  chairman  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  in  England  and  has  occupied  other  prominent  posi- 
tions in  our  denominational  life  in  the  great  country  from  whence  he 
comes.     (Applause.) 

Sir  George  W.  Macalpine  then  took  the  chair,  and  spoke  as  follows : 


Sir  GEORGE  W.  MACALPINE,  Accrington,  England. 

When  I  scan  the  program  for  this  morning,  and  read  into  its  content 
the  multifarious  activities  represented  there  under  general  headings,  I 
am  reminded  how  wide  have  been  the  developments  of  our  missionary 
enterprise  in  quite  recent  years.  Within  the  memory  of  many  here  the 
field  of  operations  of  the  great  societies  in  which  most  of  us  are  inter- 
ested has  spread  to  one  continent  after  another.  Moreover,  department 
has  been  added  to  department  i;ntil  the  operations  of  the  missionary 
agencies  of  the  churches  have  become  quite  extensive.  For  example,  to 
the  simple  work  of  the  evangelist  has  been  added  that  of  the  medical 
missionary,  the  educationalist  and  the  artisan.  Whilst  most  of  us  can  re- 
member the  rise  of  women's  work  for  women  in  foreign  lands. 

I  do  not  forget  that  those  developments  were  incipient  in  the  work  of 
the  two  great  pioneers,  Carey  and  Thomas,  as  leaf  and  flower  are  latent 
in  the  bud.  Thomas  was  himself  a  medical  missionary  and  Carey  a  not- 
able educationalist.  It  is  only  now  that,  in  our  new  Serampore  univer- 
sity, we  are  attempting  to  materialize  the  educational  plans  of  William 
Carey.  Probably  women's  work  too  would  have  found  a  place  in  his 
scheme  had  he  been  less  sadly  unfortunate  in  his  wife.  As  it  is,  his  work 
for  the  women  of  India  is  worthy  of  eternal  praise.  But  all  this  is  evi- 
dence of  the  greatness  of  a  mind  which  conceived  that  which  even  now 
we  are  planning  and  perfecting.  If  Thomas  could  see  our  field  hospitals, 
so  admirably  equipped  with  competent  surgeons  and  highly  trained 
nurses,  he  Avould  be  filled  with  gratitude.  If  Carey  could  behold  our 
schools,  graded  (however  imperfectly)  from  the  primary  department  to 
the  university,  his  heart  would  rejoice. 

And  when  we  turn  to  the  Home  Base,  which  is  also  represented  on  our 
program  for  this  morning,  we  are  again  struck  by  the  developments  of 
the  last  few  years.  Here,  too,  organization  has  ruled,  and  many  are  the 
devices  for  winning  the  interest  of  the  constituency.  The  old,  simple 
secretariat  has  been  supplemented  by  separate  departments  for  the  pro- 
motion of  exhibitions,  study-circles  and  a  host  of  other  educational 
agencies.     With  what  result? 

Those  who  are  in  close  touch  with  the  facts  are  struck  by  two  phe- 
nomena, which,  a  priori,  we  should  hardly  have  expected  to  exist  con- 


Friilay,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  269 

currently,  Ou  the  one  liand  there  has  been  an  immense  expansion  of  the 
work;  on  the  other,  a  growing  indifference  thereto  among  the  rank  and 
tile  in  the  churches  (from  which  I  do  not  exclude  the  ministry),  and  a 
tendency  to  stagnation  in  missionary  contributions. 

There  can  be  no  mistake  about  either  phenomenon,  and  in  the  coinci- 
dence God  seems  to  be  teaching  us  this  lesson,  that  money  is  not  the  main 
element  in  the  missionai'y  cause — that  God's  work  will  go  forward 
Avhether  we  put  our  hand  to  the  plough  or  whether  we  forbear.  Yet 
surely  it  is  not  our  Lord's  will  that  His  kingdom  should  be  brought  in 
apart  from  the  church.  The  missionary  enterprise  is  not  only  the 
church  's  duty,  it  is  tiie  very  breath  of  her  life.  While  the  Lord 's  work 
will  go  on  without  her,  her  health  depends  upon  her  exercising  herself 
therein. 

And  greater  demands  are  yet  to  be  made  upon  her.  We  are  standing 
at  the  beginning  of  a  new  era.  A  new  vision  has  arisen  upon  the  Church, 
of  which  the  World  Missionary  Conference,  held  at  Edinburgh  a  year 
ago,  is  perhaps  rather  the  expression  than  the  effective  cause.  For  over 
a  century  the  Church  has  been  can-ying  on  a  sort  of  guerilla  warfare  on 
the  heathen  world.  Here  and  there  a  detached  band  of  faithful  soldiers 
has  raised  the  standard  of  the  cross,  but  the  field  of  battle  has  not  been 
adequately  occupied.  Great  areas  have  been  left  in  possession  of  the 
enemy.  Too  often  the  strength  of  the  combatants  has  been  exhausted  in 
skirmishing  between  different  batallions  of  the  allied  troops. 

But  all  this  is  passing  away  and  we  are  entering  upon  an  era  of  scien- 
tific warfare,  in  which  the  advance  on  the  enemy  will  be  united.  Ac- 
curate account  is  being  taken  of  the  opposing  forces  and  adequate  plans 
laid  for  a  combined  assault.  The  week  before  I  left  home  it  was  my 
privilege  to  attend,  with  Dr.  Barbour,  the  meetings  of  the  Continuation 
Committee  of  the  World  Missionary  Conference.  In  an  old  castle  in  the 
North  of  England  leaders  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  and  all  sections  of  the  Church,  were  met  together.  In  halls 
where  the  Prince-Bishops  of  Durham  had  met  in  days  long  gone  by  to 
hold  council  of  war — to  seek  to  stem  the  advance  of  the  invading  Scot  or 
to  raise  their  contingent  of  the  Parliamentary  forces  in  the  civil  war — 
we  too  were  met,  a  Council  of  War — might  I  venture  to  say  the  staff  of- 
ficers of  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation.  In  the  great  hall  in  which,  in  an- 
cient days,  the  Bishops  and  their  retainers  were  accustomed  to  revel,  but 
now  converted  into  a  stately  chapel,  consecrated  as  the  burial  place  of 
the  learned  Bishops  Lightfoot  and  Westcott,  we  knelt,  in  united  prayer  to 
the  King  of  kings.  Episcopalian  and  Presbyterian,  Congregationalist  and 
Baptist,  met  together  in  perfect  accord,  to  take  counsel  against  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  the  spii-it  that  now  worketh  in  the  sons  of 
disobedience — to  plan  the  order  of  battle  and  to  perfect  the  organization 
of  attack. 

But  after  all,  organization  is  not  enough.  If  I  may  change  the  figure, 
we  must  have  not  only  the  machinery  but  the  power,  and  we  must  have 
it  in  every  part.     How  is  this  to  be  secured? 

It  is  often  said  that  Christianity  is  the  only  religion  which  can  supply 
the  dynamic  for  holiness.  But  holiness  is  not  a  negative  but  a  positive 
virtue — it  is  righteousness  illumined  by  love;  righteousness  finding  ex- 
pression in  action.  It  has  been  asserted  similarly  that  Christianity  is  the 
only  religion  which  supplies  the  dynamic  for  missions.  This  is  a  fallacy. 
The  problem  Avhich  shares  to-day,  with  that  of  the  great  opening  in  China, 


270  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  place  of  supreme  urgency,  is  that  of  the  Mohammedan  propaganda 
which  is  moving  through  East  Central  Africa  with  a  force  that  appears 
to  be  irresistible.  There  is  unquestionably  an  immense  dynamic  in  Mo- 
hammedanism; yet  I  believe  that  of  Christianity  to  be  greater.  The  on^ 
is  the  dynamic  of  hate ;  the  other  of  love.  Here  is  the  secret  in  this  great 
conflict.    Do  we  love  well  enough  to  win  1 

What,  then,  is  the  power  which  lies  behind  the  missionary  enterprise? 
Sometimes  we  have  sought  to  urge  men  forward  by  their  Lord's  com- 
mand. The  Great  Commission  has  been  regarded  as  the  impelling  force. 
And  indeed  there  is  much  in  this.  However  specious  the  arguments  ad- 
vanced against  missions  we  cannot  listen  to  them;  we  have  no  option  but 
to  obey  our  Lord's  command.  But  a  command  is  not  enough;  there  must 
be  a  stronger  impulse  than  mere  authority.  And  there  is.  Surely  the 
most  powerful  motive  for  Christian  service  is  the  profound  sense  of  obli- 
gation to  the  Christ.  We  seek  the  redemption  of  the  world  because  we 
have  ourselves  been  redeemed.  Redeeming  love  has  placed  upon  us  an 
obligation  which  we  cannot  resist.    "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us." 

If  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  Church  is  to  be  deepened — No,  I  will  put 
it  personally — If  my  own  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  is  to  be 
more  fervid,  I  must  gain  a  deeper  sense  of  my  personal  obligation  to 
Christ.  It  is  only  as  I  know  the  breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth 
of  His  love — only  as  I  realize  the  gulf  from  which  I  have  been  redeemed, 
and  the  glory  for  which  I  have  been  redeemed — that  I  am  drawn  into 
participation  in  His  great  purpose  of  the  redemption  of  the  world.  The 
sense  of  vital  personal  obligation  begets  a  love  for  Christ  so  intense,  it 
brings  the  believer  into  a  fellowship  with  Him  so  intimate,  that  he 
catches  the  faintest  indication  of  His  Avill  and  hastens  to  do  it.  And 
He  willeth  that  none  should  perish  but  that  all  should  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth.  "He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins;  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world."  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
final  test  of  the  worth  of  any  man's  religion  is  his  interest  in  the  re- 
demption of  all  mankind.  We  must  share  the  passion  of  Jesus  if  we 
would  share  His  life. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  I  have  now  great  pleasure  in  calling  upon  Mrs.  Andrew 
MacLeish,  of  Chicago,  to  address  us  on  women's  work. 
Mrs.  MacLeish  was  received  with  applause  and  said : 

THE   CHRISTIANIZING   OF   THE  WORLD— WOMAN'S  PART. 

By  Mrs.  ANDREW  MacLEISH. 

Woman's  part  in  the  Christianizing  of  the  world  grows  directly  out  of 
her  obligation  to  Christianity.  This  obligation  is,  of  course,  the  basis  of 
all  missionary  endeavor,  but  women  owe  a  special  debt  to  Christ,  and 
therefore  there  is  laid  upon  them  a  special  obligation  to  extend  to  non- 
Christian  lands  the  Christian  conception  of  womanhood.  For  it  is  only 
under  the  Christian  religion,  and  its  noble  predecessor,  Judaism,  that  wo- 
man's  place  in  society  and  in  the  family  is  recognized  as  in  any  sense 
co-equal  with  that  of  man.  Under  Confucianism  she  is  a  drudge.  Her 
bound  feet  but  symbolize  the  cramping  of  her  mind.     Under  Mohamme- 


MRS.    ANDREW    MacLEISH. 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  271 

danism  she  is  the  plaything  of  her  master,  closely  secluded  in  the  harem 
lest  other  eyes  than  those  of  her  lord  shall  look  upon  her  beauty.  Under 
llinduisiu  her  condition  is  most  hopeless  and  degraded,  for  there  the  very 
religion  of  the  land  uses  woman's  bod}'  for  vile  rites.  In  beautiful,  ar- 
tistic Japan  we  might  look  for  better  .conditions,  and  they  are  better, 
but  even  here  the  daughter  or  the  sister  may  be  sold  into  a  life  of  vice  to 
raise  money  for  the  needs  of  an  ambitious  father  or  brother.  Such  were 
the  conditions  that  gradually  came  into  clear  perspective  in  the  minds  of 
our  early  missionaries  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  conjointly  a  realization 
of  the  fact  that  men,  by  reason  of  the  iron  bars  of  custom,  could  never 
change  the  situation,  nor  reach  these  shut-in  women.  And  so  the  call 
came  from  missionaries  on  the  field  to  Christian  women  in  the  home 
land,  to  organize  themselves  and  send  out  into  this  heathen  darkness  wo- 
men missionaries,  bearing  with  them  that  light  which  cannot  be  hid,  but 
which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 

It  was  Rev.  David  Abeel,  an  American  missionary'  to  China,  who  first 
brought  this  message.  Mrs.  Montgomery  tells  the  story  in  "Western 
Women  in  Eastern  Lands."  ''The  helplessness  and  misery  of  the  women 
of  the  Orient  had  profoundly  touched  him,  and  he  had  seen  also  the  hope- 
lessness of  attempting  to  dislodge  heathenism  while  its  main  citadel,  the 
home,  was  unreached,  and  unreachable  by  the  agencies  then  employed. 
Thinking  long  and  deeply  over  the  problem,  he  had  come  to  hold  the  then 
revolutionary  doctrine  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  bring  into  the 
field  unmarried  women  to  reach  and  teach  the  women  and  children. ' ' 

In  the  summer  of  1834  he  was  returning  home  for  a  much-needed  rest. 
His  route  took  him  by  way  of  England,  and  while  in  London  he  was  in- 
vited to  address  a  company  of  women  in  a  drawing-room.  To  them  he 
made  his  plea,  and  repeated  the  message  of  some  Chinese  women:  "Are 
there  no  female  men  who  can  come  to  teach  us?"  He  showed  them  the 
tremendous  potentialities  wrapped  up  in  these  untaught  heathen  mothers 
who,  so  long  as  they  remained  heathen,  were  the  great  force  for  perpetu- 
ating superstition  and  evil  custom.  He  pleaded  Avith  them  to  extend  a 
helping  hand  with  these  their  sisters. 

His  appeal  met  a  swift  response.  A  group  of  women  representing  sev- 
eral denominations  banded  themselves  together  for  Foreign  Mission  work, 
and  so  was  formed  "The  Society  for  Promoting  Female  Education  in  the 
East,"  the  oldest  women's  missionary  organization  in  the  world,  and 
still  in  active  service. 

When  Mr.  Abeel  reached  America  he  again  addressed  large  groups  of 
women  in  New  York  Citj'.  Again  the  response  of  the  women  was  prompt, 
but  when  it  was  known  that  the  organization  of  a  Woman's  Board  was 
contemplated,  the  Denominational  Boards  rose  in  stout  opposition,  and  at 
their  earnest  request  the  plan  was  given  up,  not  to  be  again  considered 
for  thirty  years,  until  in  1860  another  missionary  came  home  with  the 
same  earnest  plea.  In  those  intervening  thirty  years  the  battle  for  avo- 
man's  higher  education  had  been  fought  and  won,  her  social  status  had 
changed  and  that  which  was  im^Dossible  in  1834  had  become  by  1860  a 
thing  generally  approved.  One  noted  divine  of  the  day  voiced  the  appre- 
hensions of  many  when  he  wrote:  "Some  of  the  most  thoughtful  minds 
are  beginning  to  ask  what  is  to  become  of  this  woman's  movement  in  the 
church.  Let  them  alone.  All  through  our  history  like  movements  have 
started.    Do  not  oppose  them,  and  it  will  die  out."  What  must  that  good 


272  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

brother  have  thought  as  he  looked  over  the  parapets  of  heaven,  this  past 
winter,  at  the  Jubilee  celebrating  the  first  fifty  years  of  this  ''Wioman's 
Movement  in  the  Church"? 

In  thus  responding  to  a  great  call  the  women  of  Great  Britain  and 
America  certainly  did  right.  They  were  not  only  meeting  their  obliga- 
tion as  Christian  women,  they  were  being  true  to  their  natures  as  wo- 
men, on  whom  God  had  bestowed  tenderness  of  feeling  and  quickness  of 
sympathy  as  distinctive  attributes.  When  the  stories  came  of  the  suf- 
fering of  women  and  children  under  heathenism,  their  hearts  went  out  in 
a  great  pity,  and  when  the  fact  was  realized  that  only  women  could  reach 
them  with  Christ's  message  of  "good  news,"  they  knew  that  necessity 
was  laid  upon  them,  yea,  woe  would  be  to  them  if,  through  their  repre- 
sentatives they  preached  not  the  gospel  in  Asia  and  Africa  and  the  Is- 
lands of  the  sea. 

Thus,  then  did  women  take  the  first  steps  in  their  part  of  the  great 
work  of  Christianizing  the  world.  After  seventy-five  years  of  this  work 
in  Great  Britain  and  fifty  years  in  America,  what  has  been  their  contri- 
bution ? 

To  the  work  in  the  foreign  field  it  has  been  very  great.  Shortness  of 
time  has  made  it  impossible  to  secure  comprehensive  and  reliable  data  of 
the  work  in  Great  Britain  and  Europe  but  glancing  at  the  records  of  wo- 
man's  work  for  Foreign  Missions  in  Canada  and  the  United  States,  we 
find  that  the  women  of  all  denominations  gave,  in  the  year  1909,  $3,328,- 
840,  that  they  employed  2,368  missionaries  on  the  field,  of  whom  930  were 
teachers,  441  evangelistic  and  zenana  workers,  147  physicians,  and  91 
trained  nurses.  In  addition  they  employed  6,154  Bible  women  and  native 
helpers. 

They  supported  3,263  schools,  of  which  2,410  were  village  schools,  329 
boarding  and  high  schools,  and  11  colleges.  They  conducted  80  hospitals, 
82  dispensaries  and  35  orphanages. 

American  women  organized  for  Home  Mission  work  about  1877.  No 
records  of  their  achievement  have  yet  been  compiled,  but  it  has  been 
worthy  and  able. 

Surely  God  has  set  the  seal  of  His  approval  upon  the  organization  of 
women  for  world  evangelization.  This  record  is  not  one  of  human 
achievement,  but  of  God's  gracious  accomplishment  through  the  humble 
human  channel  of  organized  womanhood.  Weak  women,  shall  we  say? 
Yes,  but  "though  weak  they  became  strong,"  waxed  valiant  through 
their  faith. 

To  the  conduct  of  the  Home  Base  of  Missions  woman's  work  has  also 
made  a  distinct  contribution  born  of  their  very  necessities.  The  wo- 
men's work  was  in  every  instance  started  as  an  auxiliary.  Its  object  was 
to  raise  an  additional  sum  to  meet  the  extra,  unreached  needs  of  the_  wo- 
men and  little  children.  There  could  be  no  hope  for  large  donations. 
What  came  in  must  come  in  small  sums.  Two  cents  a  week  from  each 
woman  was  the  first  ideal.  Many  a  woman  made  her  contribution  from 
her  egg  or  her  butter  money.  With  only  the  littles  to  look  to,  they  must 
fall  back  upon  the  good  old  adage  that  "Mony  littles  mak  a  muckle,"  and 
it  was  quickly  seen  that  success  lay  in  careful,  complete  organization,  and 
the  closest  attention  to  detail.  The  country  has  been  covered  with  a  sys- 
tem of  women's  mission  circles,  each  related  to  a  responsible  associa- 
tional  secretary,  the  associations  in  turn  each  related  to  a  responsible 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  273 

State  secretary,  and  presiding  over  all  a  general  board.  The  gi-eatest 
asset  of  these  organizations  has  been  the  unpaid  labor  of  devoted  women. 

In  that  union  society  of  women  for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  formed 
back  in  1860,  just  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  was  the  beginning  of 
woman 's  organized  altruistic  work,  which  has  since  blossomed  out  all  over 
the  country  into  clubs  and  societies  for  innumerable  philanthropies  and 
reforms.  The  conditions  which  called  it  into  existence  still  remain  much 
the  same,  though  the  advance  of  Christianity  is  breaking  down  some  of 
the  prejudices  and  customs  that  secluded  Oriental  women.  The  progress 
of  Christianity,  however,  makes  it  none  the  less,  but  rather  the  more  im- 
portant that  the  women  shall  be  educated.  As  Japan,  China,  Korea,  In- 
dia slowly  emerge  out  of  the  medievel  darkness  in  which  they  have  so 
long  lain,  a  striking  fact  of  the  situation  is  the  new  conception  of  wo- 
man's place  in  society.  Thoughtful  native  leaders  everywhere  are  writ- 
ing and  working  for  the  elevation  of  their  women,  realizing  that  no  na- 
tion can  rise  higher  than  its  mothers.  The  wife  and  mother  in  the  home 
holds  the  key  of  the  situation.  If  she  is  to  train  up  intelligent  Christian 
children,  she  must  herself  be  intelligent  and  Christian.  Moreover,  ex- 
perience has  again  shown  that  the  power  of  a  heathen  wife  and  mother 
is  such  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  husband  or  the  son  to  remain 
true  to  Christianity  when  under  her  influence.  We  cannot  realize  the 
grip  which  suijerstition  has  upon  heathen  people,  that  fabric  of  belief  in 
which  their  minds  have  always  been  wi-apped.  All  this  immeasurable 
power  the  heathen  wife  has  in  her  hands  to  draw  her  husband  back  to  the 
beliefs  of  his  fathers.  Here  is  the  strong  citadel  that  must  be  broken 
down.  The  girls  of  heathenism  must  be  given  a  knowledge  of  the  true 
God.  Their  minds  must  be  trained  in  clear  and  reasonable  thinking.  They 
must  be  taught  the  scientific  facts  of  the  natural  world  as  the  only  cor- 
rective for  superstitious  fear.  Large  numbers  of  them  must  be  trained 
as  teachers  for  their  own  people.  Other  large  numbers  must  be  trained 
as  Bible  women  and  evangelistic  workers.  The  training  of  native  girls 
must  of  necessity  be  done  by  Christian  women,  for  custom,  in  all  East- 
ern lands,  forbids  the  teaching  of  girls  solely  by  men. 

Another  great  realm  for  the  woman  missionary  is  the  heathen  home. 
Here  she  enters,  gains  the  love  of  the  children,  the  confidence  of  the 
mother,  and  becomes  the  beloved  helper  and  friend.  What  the  settlement 
worker  does  in  the  poverty-stricken  homes  of  our  American  cities,  that  the 
Christian  missionary  does  in  the  Oriental  homes  of  poverty  and  ignor- 
ance; with  this  distinction,  that  the  missionary's  first  business  is  to  preach 
the  Christ,  then  to  perfoi-m  the  offices  of  human  helpfulness  as  distinctly 
the  embodiment  of  his  loving  spirit.  To  non-Christian  homes  of  wealth 
and  influence  too  the  missionary  has  access,  and  in  such  she  has  need  of 
all  the  tact  and  grace  and  good  breeding  that  she  would  need  in  like 
homes  in  her  own  land,  that  she  may  in  good  time  commend  to  these  peo- 
ple also  her  Christ  and  His  emancipating  gospel.  In  this  work  among 
the  homes  obviously  men  missionaries  could  never  take  the  place  of  wo- 
men, nor  have  the  access  which  is  granted  them. 

The  medical  woi-k  speaks  for  itself.  In  some  lands  it  is  quite  impos- 
sible that  the  physical  ailments  of  women  should  be  treated  by  men.  In 
no  Eastern  land  is  it  easy  for  a  woman  to  place  herself  under  the  care 
of  a  male  physician.  There  must  be  women  doctors  and  nurses,  not  only 
to  care  for  the  countless  sick  and  suffering  about  them,  but  also,  and  far 

i8 


274  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

more  important,  to  train  native  women  as  doctors  and  nurses  for  the 
work  among  their  own  people. 

For  all  this  woman's  work  on  the  Foreign  Field  the  wives  of  mission- 
aries are  quite  inadequate.  They  have  the  care  of  their  own  homes  and 
children.  They  must  help  in  the  work  of  their  husbands,  and  nobly  do 
they  do  it.  They  have  neither  time  nor  strength  for  this  great  distinc- 
tive work.  There  is  no  solution  for  this  problem  but  the  unmarried  wo- 
man missionary. 

Such  being  the  situation  what  shall  we  say  of  the  separate  organiza- 
tions of  women  at  home  for  the  support  of  these  single  women  and  their 
work  abroad? 

All  will  grant  that  they  were  needed  at  first.  The  work  could  have 
been  started  on  no  other  basis.  Have  conditions  so  changed  as  to  ren- 
der them  unnecessary  or  unwise  now? 

One  of  the  greatest  things  that  the  women's  organizations  have  done 
at  home  is  to  develop  and  educate  a  vast  body  of  earnest  women.  A 
great  feature  of  their  work  is  the  widely  reaching  plan  for  missionary 
education,  based  upon  the  well-authenticated  belief  that  missionary  in- 
terest and  missionary  giving  are  co-extensive  with  missionary  knowledge. 
The  circles  of  women  in  the  individual  church  are  the  units  in  this  work. 
They  meet  for  study  and  information  upon  missionary  subjects.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  great  work  which  each  separate  denominational  woman's 
society  does  along  these  lines,  a  statesmanlike,  interdenominational  move- 
ment for  united  study  was  inaugurated  ten  years  ago.  In  accordance 
with  this  plan  ten  annual  volumes  have  been  published,  each  by  a  speci- 
alist, and  designed  to  educate  the  women  of  our  land  in  some  phase  of 
the  work.  The  sales  of  these  books  have  been  large.  The  present  year 
brings  them  up  to  600,000.  Even  this,  however,  does  not  measure  their 
use.  In  many,  many  instances  one  or  two  volumes  have  guided  the  work 
of  a  whole  group  of  women.  An  outgrowth  of  this  work  has  been  the 
summer  schools  for  mission  study,  where  courses  of  lectures  upon  the 
study  book  for  the  coming  year  have  been  given  by  experts,  and  to 
which  women  have  come  for  training  in  matter  and  method,  that  they 
may  in  turn  lead  the  women  of  their  church  and  neighborhood.  These 
summer  schools  now  cover  the  country  with  a  loose  network  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  California. 

In  the  progress  of  their  work  the  women 's  societies  have  developed  a 
very  large  constituency,  as  evidenced  by  the  large  contributions  which 
they  have  received.  This  contributing  constituency  may  be  divided  into 
three  classes :  those  who  give  from  an  intelligent  love  of  the  cause  and 
of  the  Christ  whose  cause  it  is;  those  who  give,  partly  at  least,  because 
of  a  pride  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  which  they  feel  for  their  own 
woman's  work;  those  who  give  because  the  faithful  collector,  blessed  be 
her  name  and  work,  comes  after  the  money.  The  first  class  would  give 
under  any  circumstances.  The  second  might  pare  down  their  giving  if 
they  did  not  feel  that  certain  parts  of  the  work  rested  distinctly  upon 
their  shoulders.  The  third  would  probably  forget  all  about  it,  or  never 
rise  to  the  point  of  actually  making  their  contributions,  if  the  collector 
failed  to  come.  Moreover,  such  is  the  power  of  momentum  in  the  hu- 
man mind — at  least  in  woman's  mind,  changes  in  method  are  disastrous, 
as  experience  has  many  times  shown.  It  takes  long  to  get  a  new  method 
thoroughly  understood,  and  the  complicated  system  of  its  wheels  run- 


Friday,  June  23.]  liECOUD  OF  PROVJJIJDIXGS.  275 

ning  smoothly,  and  this  means  loss  for  the  time  being.  It  is  said,  you 
know,  that  the  three  great  conservative  forces  of  the  world  are  religion, 
education  and  woman.  They  don't  like  to  be  unnecessarily  jogged  out 
of  their  habitual  ruts. 

One  other  point  might  well  be  made  here.  The  separate  women's  so- 
cieties, serve  to  connect  Avitli  the  church  and  its  work  many  women  of 
ability  and  experience  in  affairs,  who  would  otherwise  give  themselves  to 
the  clamorous  and  fascinating  calls  of  philanthropy  outside  the  church. 
The  various  responsible  positions  of  these  societies  offer  a  field  for  all 
the  devotion,  judgment,  executive  ability  and  general  intelligence  which 
an}'  woman  may  possess,  and  they  return  to  her  an  intellectual  develop- 
ment and  a  spiritual  growth  well  worth  the  cost.  If  the  church  does  not 
offer  to  able  women  work  worth  the  doing,  she  has  no  right  to  complain 
if  they  are  drawn  aside  to  clubs,  organizations  for  social  betterment,  and 
the  splendid  philanthropies  of  the  day  which,  alas,  have  had  to  arise  out- 
side the  church,  rather  than  within  it. 

Granting  then,  for  the  time  being,  that  the  women's  organizations 
have  still  their  place  in  the  Baptist  bodj',  are  there  any  points  at  which 
they  could  become  more  valuable  members?  Can  the  difficulties  of  sep- 
arate organizations,  for  certainlj^  such  exist,  be  overcome  without  de- 
stroying the  strength  of  either?  It  is  to  the  answering  of  this  question 
that  we  Baptists  must  set  our  minds. 

Fine  and  strong  as  the  women's  organizations  have  been  and  are,  they 
have  certain  limitations  which  have  grown  perhaps  out  of  the  very  loy- 
alty of  the  women  to  them.  One  of  the  attributes  of  woman  is  her  in- 
tense devotion  to  her  own.  It  is  what  makes  her  capable  of  being  under 
all  conditions  the  cherishing  mother.  It  is  her  most  beautiful  character- 
istic, but  like  all  others  it  needs  balance.  We  have  perhaps  given  our- 
selves too  unreservedly  and  completely  to  this  dear  missionary  child  of 
ours.  We  have  failed  to  extend  our  vision  and  our  knowledge  far 
enough  to  see  that  this,  though  our  own,  is  but  a  small  section  of  the 
great  whole,  and  that  our  loyalty,  our  interest  and  our  knowledge  should 
include  all.  We  cannot  look  upon  ourselves  as  a  separate  battalion  in 
the  great  struggle  with  heathenism.  We  are  a  part  of  the  vast  army 
which  must  move  as  one  and  present  a  united  front  to  its  mighty  foe. 
In  these  days  of  union  and  co-operation  we  Baptists  all  need  to  often 
ponder  that  wise  injunction  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  "Look  not  every  man 
on  his  own  things,  but  every  man  also  on  the  things  of  others." 

The  woman's  point  of  view  is  just  as  necessary  in  this  great  work  as 
the  man's,  and  the  man's  is  as  necessary  as  the  woman's.  Some  way 
must  be  found  of  bringing  our  general  societies  and  our  women's  organi- 
zations into  the  closest  touch  with  one  another,  that  the  difficulties  of 
each  may  be  known  to  the  other,  that  they  may  be  mutually  helpful,  and 
most  important  of  all, — that  their  work  may  be  a  unit  on  the  mission 
fields,  and  may  be  conducted  in  absolute  harmony  and  with  mutual  un- 
derstanding at  home.  We  are  advancing  to  this  point.  The  spirit  of  co- 
operation has  grown  rapidly  of  late. 

In  the  suggestions  made  to  the  Edinburgh  Conference  last  summer  by 
the  Commission  upon  the  Home  Base  was  this:  "That  within  the  same 
denominations  there  be  formed  a  Board  of  Reference  and  Counsel,  con- 
sisting of  duly  elected  delegates  from  the  Women's  Board  or  Boards 
and  the  General  Board,  by  which  questions  of  co-operation  and  even  of 


276  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

federation  may  be  discussed,  and  methods  of  harmonious  work  devised." 
It  would  seem  that  some  such  plan  might  well  fit  Baptist  polity. 

By  whatever  road  it  is  reached  there  is  little  question  that  the  near 
future  will  see  a  closer  affiliation  of  the  women's  societies  to  the  general 
society  of  the  denomination,  such  an  affiliation  as  shall  conserve  all  that 
has  been  noblest  and  best  in  the  past  of  woman's  work,  and  shall  enable 
it  to  make  its  richest  contribution  to  the  glorious  whole,  the  Christianizing 
of  the  entire  world. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  I  have  to  call  upon  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Wilson,  of  England, 
my  own  colleague,  secretary  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  to  ad- 
dress the  Congress. 


MEDICAL  MISSIONS. 

By  Rev.  C.  E.  WILSON,  B.  A., 
General  Secretary  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 

Medical  Missions  are  recognized  to-day  as  a  valuable  department  of  the 
evangelizing  agency  of  the  Christian  church  in  non-Christian  lands.  They 
are  acclaimed  as  the  outstanding  example  of  Christian  benevolence  and 
one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  worth  of  our  religion. 

There  are  not  a  few  people  who  lack  enthusiasm  for  the  exposition  of 
Christian  doctrine  among  the  heathen,  or  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world  to  Christianity,  who  nevertheless  express  their  approval  and  are 
even  prepared  to  assist  in  the  support  of  Medical  Missions.  Whatever 
opposition  foreign  missions  in  general  may  have  to  meet,  the  mission- 
ary doctor  and  nurse  are  not  usually  selected  for  the  attack  of  hostile 
critics  of  foreign  missions. 

The  proposition  that  it  is  the  object  of  this  paper  to  prove  is  that  the 
Christian  church  ought  to  do  much  more  than  it  has  hitherto  done  for 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  strong,  efficient,  well-equipped 
missionary  hospitals  and  dispensaries  in  non-Christian  lands.  I  shall 
seek  to  show : 

I.     The  recent  growth  and  present  position  of  this  department  of 
foreign  missions. 

11.     The  sanctions  and  missionary  value  of  the  method. 

in.     The  present  opportunities  and  needs  for  its  development. 

IV.     The  limits  and  perils  which  require  to  be  recognized. 

I.    Recent  Growth  and  Present  Position. 

The  review  of  Protestant  missionary  statistics  for  the  past  ten  years, 
for  which  full  opportunity  has  been  afforded  by  the  recent  World  Mis- 
sionary Conference  in  Edinburgh,  gives  one  a  very  vivid  impression  of 
the  remarkable  progress  which  the  medical  side  of  missionary  opera- 
tions has  made  in  comparison  with  all  other  departments. 

In  connection  with  the  Protestant  churches  there  are  now  nearly  one 
thousand  doctors  engaged  in  work  on  foreign  stations,  or  one  in  every 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  277 

nineteen  foreign  missionaries.  Ten  years  ago  there  were  only  seven 
hundred  fully  trained  medical  workers. 

It  is  particularly  noticeable  that  the  number  of  women  doctors  has 
increased  more  than  half  in  this  time. 

Mission  hospitals  have  increased  in  number  much  more  rapidly  than 
mission  schools.  There  are  now  five  hundred  and  fifty  Protestant  mis- 
sion hospitals  in  non-Christian  lauds. 

While  the  number  of  students  in  mission  training  colleges  for  native 
teachers  and  preachers  has  increased  5  per  cent,  in  ten  years,  the  num- 
ber of  medical  students  has  more  than  doubled,  and  in  the  case  of  women 
students  has  trebled  in  the  same  period. 

While  the  number  of  pupils  in  mission  elementary  schools  has  in- 
creased 28  per  cent.,  the  number  of  in-patients  treated  in  hospital  by  mis- 
sionary doctors  has  increased  75  per  cent. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  this  force  is  as  yet  quite  inade- 
quate even  to  the  requirements  of  the  missionary  societies  at  their  pres- 
ent standard  of  operations.  The  figures,  however,  show  quite  clearly  that 
there  has  been  far  more  attention  directed  towards  this  side  of  missions 
than  was  formerly  the  case  and  that  the  progress  of  the  decade  has  been 
proportionately  greater  in  the  medical  department  than  in  any  other. 

This  may  be  accounted  for  in  many  ways.  The  fuller  knowledge  of 
the  condition  of  non-Christian  lands,  which  a  wider  spread  of  missionary 
literature  has  made  possible,  has  brought  home  to  Christian  people  the 
deplorable  amount  of  physical  suffering  which  heathen  ignorance  and 
superstition  has  entailed  and  Christian  sympathy  has  been  aroused  to 
help;  there  are  certainly  increased  facilities  in  the  home  lands  for  se- 
curing full  medical  training  and  qualification,  and  therefore  more  Chris- 
tian doctors  are  now  available  than  in  former  years.  And  there  is,  un- 
doubtedly, a  connection  between  the  proportionately  higher  rate  of  in- 
crease in  medical  than  in  other  more  directly  evangelistic  and  educational 
agencies,  and  the  proportionately  greater  emphasis  laid  in  all  our 
churches  to-day  upon  the  social  and  material  betterment  which  ''pure 
religion  and  undefiled"  is  bound  to  seek  and  accomplish  than  upon  theo- 
logical exposition  and  argument. 

There  are  dangers  as  well  as  advantages  in  this  change  of  emphasis 
of  which  we  must  all  be  conscious,  and  it  is  quite  arguable  that  the 
church  as  a  Avhole  is  not  as  much  stronger  against  the  assault  of  unbe- 
lief and  equipped  for  aggressive  advance  upon  the  real  strongholds  of 
heathenism  as  the  increase  in  its  philanthropic  and  educational  appa- 
ratus might  persuade  the  more  sanguine  to  sui^pose. 

But  without  laying  any  exaggerated  claims  on  their  behalf  we  can 
and  do  rejoice  that  the  place  of  Medical  Missions  in  the  thought  and 
affection,  in  the  support  and  personal  service  of  Christians  to-day  is 
higher  than  it  has  ever  previously  been.  Every  missionary  society  sees 
the  importance  of  employing  their  help  on  the  foreign  field,  and  no  ap- 
peal for  missionary  support  at  home  meets  with  better  response. 

II.    Sanctions  and  Missionary  Value  of  Medical  Work. 

I  am  not  a  medical  man.  I  share  with  many  laymen  the  notion  that 
physicians,  like  other  mortals,  are  liable  to  error,  and  that  they  some- 
times fail. 

I  have  set  out  to  write  this  paper  with  the  desire  and  determination 


278  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

not  to  exaggerate,  though  there  is  perhaps  no  modern  cause  in  regard  to 
which  there  is  greater  temptation. 

Opposition  may  be  needlessly  created  by  over-stating  the  claims  of 
any  good  undertaking.  So  many  things  have  at  different  times  been  de- 
clared to  be  the  first  and  most  important  of  all  duties  that  the  sanction 
of  everyone  of  them  tends  to  be  diminished. 

With  so  vast  and  diverse  a  problem  before  it,  the  Christian  church 
must  find  a  right  use  for  every  possible  weapon  and  method.  We  have 
surely  arrived  at  a  stage  in  our  history  when  the  supposed  rivalry  be- 
tween different  methods  is  seen  to  be  unnecessary.  Each  way  of  work- 
ing in  its  place  and  time  and  all  at  their  best  should  be  our  rule. 

I  am  not  going  to  say  therefore  that  Medical  Missions  are  the  highest 
and  best  form  of  Christian  service;  that  no  progress  in  evangelizing 
the  world  can  be  made  without  them — that  other  forms  of  missions  are 
of  less  importance  or  authority — I  cannot  say  that  the  "Acts  of  the 
Apostles "  is  a  report  of  a  Medical  Missionary  Society,  or  that  the  Mis- 
sion of  the  Seventy  was  the  pattern  of  modern  dispensary  work  in  China. 
Still  less  would  I  speak  of  the  Divine  Miracle  Worker  in  terms  that  only 
apply  to  a  modern  practitioner  in  medicine  and  surgery.  I  recognize  the 
insufficiency  and  shortcoming  of  every  single  Christian  agency  and  the 
need  of  all  to  make  up  the  perfect  service  of  the  King.  There  are  di- 
versities of  gifts  and  to  use  the  English  Church  liturgy  version— ''He 
gave  some  to  be  apostles,  some  prophets,  some  evangelists,  some  pastors 
and  doctors,  to  the  edifying  and  making  perfect  His  church." 

Commission  No.  1  of  the  Edinburgh  Conference  in  their  report  sum  up 
the  merits  of  Medical  Missions  in  these  words : 

"Medical  Missions  are  practically  on  the  same  level  as  education,  as  a 
method  of  high  value.  They  are  a  noble  feature  of  modern  missions. 
They  break  down  barriers;  they  attract  reluctant  and  suspicious  popula- 
tions; they  open  whole  regions;  they  capture  entire  villages  and  tribes; 
they  give  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity. ' ' 

The  last  of  these  sentences  undoubtedly  expresses  the  fact  of  greatest 
significance. 

CHRISTLIKE    MINISTRY. 

We  come  near  to  reproducing  some  of  the  most  tender  and  attractive 
features  of  our  Lord's  own  earthly  ministry  among  men  when  we  go  in 
His  name  among  the  suffering  and  diseased  and  show  them  pity  and  re- 
lieve their  pain.  He  who  came  to  show  us  all  God's  mercy  was  moved 
with  compassion  for  all  who  were  sick  and  distressed.  Those  whom  He 
healed  with  His  miraculous  touch  did  not  all  believe  in  Him  and  accept 
His  gospel,  but  His  marvelous  works  were  indeed  "signs"  and  parables 
to  many. 

Christianity  is  the  best  religion  in  the  world  for  physical  health  and 
happiness.  It  has  encouraged  all  progress  in  the  science  of  healing. 
Non-Christian  lands,  even  the  most  civilized  are  full  of  amazing  ignor- 
ance of  the  laws  that  govern  our  bodily  life  and  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease. It  is  not  merely  among  the  savages  of  Central  Africa  or  the  South 
Seas  but  among  the  refined  Indians  and  lettered  Chinese  that  there  are 
still  found  the  most  foolish  superstitions  and  the  most  barbarous  practices 
in  regard  to  diseases. 

If  we  had  no  higher  aim  than  to  reduce  the  sum  total  of  physical  pain 


Friday,  June  23.  J  RECORD  OF  rROCEEDINGS.  279 

among  the  members  of  the  human  race,  it  would  be  worth  while  seeking 
to  spread  Christianity  tliroughout  the  world.  Who  can  tell  what  we  owe 
to  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  alleviation  of  our  sufferings,  in  the 
tender  regard  shown  for  the  sick,  the  gentle  nursing,  the  skill'ul  diagno- 
sis and  the  mitigation  if  not  the  conquest  of  our  pain"? 

SYMPATHY. 

Nothing  touches  the  heart  of  a  man  more  quickly  than  compassion  for 
him,  or  for  one  he  loves,  in  sickness.  This  is  of  course  an  opportunity 
every  Christian  has  to  show  himself  worthy  of  his  Master's  name.  But 
if  with  our  compassion  we  can  combine  medical  or  surgical  skill  we  be- 
come possessed  of  one  of  the  most  potent  influences  in  all  human  life. 
"One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 

Pain  is  the  common  heritage  of  all  our  race  and  we  cannot  go  far  in  our 
acquaintance  with  any  non-Christian  people  without  realizing  how  piti- 
able is  the  physical  need  of  those  who  have  not  yet  come  into  the  bene- 
fits of  Christian  enlightenment. 

While  every  missionary  must  and  actually  does  seek  to  show  in  his 
behavior  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  the  medical  missionary  has  a  particularly 
valuable  opportunity  of  showing  how  real  and  practical  is  his  compas- 
sion and   how  disinterested  his  purpose. 

A    RECENT    ILLUSTRATION. 

Few  more  touching  tributes  to  a  Christian  life  have  ever  been  given 
than  that  given  by  the  Viceroy  of  Manchuria  in  February  of  this  year 
at  the  funeral  service  of  Dr.  A.  F.  Jackson,  a  young  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary doctor  who  offered  himself  for  plague  duty  on  the  frontier  and 
after  a  time  contracted  the  terrible  disease  himself  and  died. 

(Extract  from  ''Daily  News,"  Thursday,^  9th  March,  1911.) 

''Pekin,  Feb.,  15th. 

"At  the  funeral  service  for  Doctor  A.  F.  Jackson,  a  young  Cheshire 
man  who  had  but  recently  come  to  China,  a  pathetic  story  of  the  plague 
now  ravishing  Manchuria  was  given  in  striking  form.  The  speaker  was 
a  Chinaman  of  the  old  school,  a  man  of  great  ability,  chosen  for  the  dif- 
ficult office  of  Viceroy  of  this  vast  Province  of  the  North,  where  only  a 
statesman  can  reconcile  the  conflicting  ideas  of  Russia  and  Japan  with 
those  of  his  own  countrymen.  The  Viceroy  of  Manchuria,  H.  E.  Hsi 
Liang,  is  a  tall,  heavily-built  Manchu,  with  large  head  and  thin  white 
beard.  In  his  stately  robes  and  feathered  hat — worn,  as  is  the  custom, 
in  the  house  as  well  as  out — he  looks  indeed  massive.  And  he  has  that 
gift  of  language  which  comes  of  twenty  or  thirty  years  of  study  amongst 
the  Chinese  classics.  These  were  the  words  of  the  Viceroy,  spoken  in  the 
Scotch  Presbyterian  Chapel  at  Mukden: 

"  'We  have  shown  ourselves  unworthy  of  the  trust  laid  upon  us  by 
our  Emperor;  we  have  allowed  a  dire  pestilence  to  overrun  the  sacred 
capital. 

"  'His  Majesty  the  King  of  Great  Britain  extends  his  sympathy  to 
every  country  overtaken  by  calamity,  and  his  loyal  subject,  Doctor  Jack- 
son, moved  by  that  spirit  which  rules  his  Sovereign,  with  the  heart  of 


280  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Christ  who  died  to  save  the  world,  came  to  our  aid  when  we  besought  him 
to  help  our  country  in  its  hour  of  distress. 

"  'He  went  forth  to  help  us  in  our  struggle.  Daily  where  the  plague 
lay  thickest,  midst  the  groans  of  the  dying,  he  struggled  to  help  the 
stricken,  to  find  medicine  to  stay  the  dreadful  disease. 

' '  '  He  was  worn  out  by  his  efforts ;  the  pest  seized  upon  him,  and  took 
him  from  us  long  before  his  time. 

' '  '  Our  sorrow  is  beyond  all  measure ;  our  grief  too  deep  for  words. 

"  '  O  spirit  of  Doctor  Jackson,  we  pray  you  to  intercede  for  the  twenty 
millions  of  people  in  Manchuria,  and  ask  the  Lord  of  Heaven  to  take 
away  this  plague,  so  we  may  once  more  lay  our  heads  in  peace  upon  our 
pillows. 

''  'In  life  you  were  brave;  now  you  are  a  spirit.  Noble  Spirit,  who 
gave  up  your  life  for  us,  help  us  still,  look  down  with  sympathy  upon  us 
all.' 

A  VALIANT  FIGHT. 

''Unlike  many  Chinese  officials,  the  Viceroy  of  Manchuria  enlisted  the 
services  of  foreigners  at  the  first  appearance  of  the  plague  in  his  capital. 
When  a  trainload  of  coolies  bound  for  the  Tientsin  and  Peking  district 
were  discovered  to  have  sickness  among  them,  and  were  turned  back  at 
the  Manchurian  border — that  is  to  say,  at  the  Great  Wall — H.  E.  Hsi 
Liang  at  once  availed  himself  of  the  services  of  the  missionary  doctors; 
and  Doctor  Jackson  volunteered  to  take  charge  of  the  coolies  and  segre- 
gate them. 

"It  is  a  dramatic  story.  There  are  four  hundred  and  seventy-nine  of 
these  unfortunate  fellows  who  had  been  working  for  a  pittance  of  wages 
in  the  cold  North  country,  harvesting  soya  beans  meant  for  the  Euro- 
pean market.  They  were  on  their  way  in  goods  cars  back  to  their  homes, 
in  the  milder  Provinces  within  the  Wall,  where  they  looked  forward  to 
spending  the  Chinese  Naw  Year  with  the  parents  they  revere,  with  their 
little-footed  wives,  and  with  the  shaven-headed  children. 

"On  January  15th  this  mass  of  humanity  fell  to  the  care  of  Doctor 
Jackson.  It  is  not  difficult  to  picture  the  terror  and  the  misery  of  the 
queued  throng  as  they  were  crowded  into  five  Chinese  inns,  confiscated 
hurriedly  and  transformed  into  segregation  barracks.  Later  Doctor 
Jackson  secured  six  more  houses,  and  was  able  to  give  them  a  little  more 
living  room. 

"The  coolies  began  to  die.  The  toll  of  deaths  reached  eighty  before 
Doctor  Jackson  contracted  the  disease.  Clad  in  a  long  white  covering, 
with  rubber  boots  on  his  feet,  and  a  mask  and  hood  over  his  face  and 
head,  breathing  through  lint  damp  with  a  solution  of  carbolic  acid,  he 
made  his  rounds  daily  from  inn  to  inn. 

GAVE  UP  HIS  LIFE. 

"For  a  few  days  the  coolies,  receiving  good  fare  and  being  kept  warm, 
were  more  or  less  content,  not  expecting  their  detention  would  be  very 
long.  But  when  the  deaths  began  to  come  rapidly,  especially  in  the  worst 
inns,  a  panic  struck  them,  and  thirty  escaped  to  carry  the  infection 
wherever  they  went.  The  weather  being  still  bitterly  cold,  they  could 
not  travel  far  afoot,  and  the  railways  were  no  longer  taking  passengers. 


Friday,  June  23.]  h'KCORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  281 

"Doctor  Jackson  would  line  up  the  occupants  of  each  inn,  go  down  the 
line,  and  cut  out  suspects,  and  send  them  off  to  another  inn,  where  certain 
death  awaited  them. 

"Friends  of  Dr.  Jackson  say  that  when  he  discovered  in  himself  the 
first  symptoms  of  the  disease  he  tried  to  hide,  to  keep  away  from  any 
other  being  to  whom  he  might  impart  it.  Fellow  missionaries,  however, 
masked  and  properly  clad,  v/ent  to  him  and  endeavored  by  injections  of 
Haffkine  serum  to  save  his  life.  But  no  man  recovers  from  this  disease, 
and  their  efforts  were  of  no  avail." 

Such  an  incident  and  such  a  funeral  oration  may  well  be  commended  to 
the  attention  of  those  whose  favorite  dictum  about  foreign  missions  is 
that  they  tend  to  international  jealousies— that  it  is  the  missionaries  who 
dishonor  their  nationality  and  irritate  and  prejudice  the  minds  of  native 
rulers. 

PRACTICAL   HELP. 

Medical  work  is  only  one  of  the  many  forms  in  which  Christian  mis- 
sions are  serving  the  material  interests  of  the  people  among  whom  they 
are  established.  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  of  the  foolish  notions 
about  missions  that  has  settled  in  the  minds  of  the  unsympathetic,  that 
they  are  visionarj^  and  unpractical.  That  the  Protestant  missionary  is 
nothing  but  an  eager  zealot  bent  on  threatening  or  cajoling  ignorant  peo- 
ple to  subscribe  to  a  new  dogma. 

The  fact  can  easily  be  verified  that  every  kind  of  philanthropic  work 
that  can  be  named  is  to  be  seen  in  operation  in  our  missionary  societies. 
Those  who  know  most  about  our  foreign  missions  are  only  careful  lest 
the  social,  educational,  medical,  and  other  philanthropic  ministries  should 
absorb  more  than  a  due  measure  of  the  mission's  resources,  and  the 
clear  and  constant  exposition  of  the  words  and  work  of  Christ  and  the 
building  up  of  a  strong  and  spiritual  church  receive  less  than  its  rightful 
care. 

SCIENCE  AND  SUPERSTITION. 

It  is  a  great  step  to  emancipation  of  the  soul  to  disprove  the  error  that 
holds  a  mind  in  bondage — and  the  presence  of  the  Christian  mission  of 
skilled  men  of  science,  able  to  show  that  the  old  superstitions  about  dis- 
ease are  no  longer  tenable,  and  able  to  deal  successfully  with  things  that 
have  for  ages  baffled  them  and  their  fathers,  is  a  might}'  inducement  to 
the  most  timid  or  the  most  hostile  heathen  mind  to  consider  with  respect 
and  friendliness  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  teachers. 

ATTRACTION  OF  NUMBERS. 

I  have  seen  medical  missions  in  many  lands.  I  have  never  seen  or 
heard  of  a  mission  hospital  or  dispensary  lacking  patients;  they  always 
lack  workers,  and  funds.  Last  year  there  were  164,000  in-patients  and 
4,000,000  out-patients. 

I  have  vivid  recollections  of  the  pathetic  crowds  waiting  to  be  treated. 
Whose  heart  could  resist  the  pitiful  appeal  of  those  wistful  faces? 

INDIVIDUAL  DEALING. 

It  is  an  essential  feature  and  one  of  obvious  importance  from  a  mis- 
sionary point  of  view  that  ever>'  patient  must  be  dealt  with  individually. 


282  THE  BAPTIIST  ^^ORLD  ALLIANCE. 

If,  therefore,  the  competent  staff  of  the  medical  mission  is  only  sufficient 
to  take  full  advantage  of  this  circumstance,  it  is  obvious  that  medical 
missions  have  an  opportunity  for  personal  instruction  and  religious  in- 
fluence that  is  hardly  rivalled  by  any  other  Christian  agency. 

Not  only  with  the  patients  who  may  or  may  not  be  in  a  frame  of  mind 
in  which  religious  impressions  are  easily  made,  but  also  with  relatives 
and  friends  in  the  home  or  at  the  hospital  the  medical  mission  worker 
ought  to  have  a  chance  of  personal  talk  that  may  be  of  enormous  value. 

The  unceasing  demand  now  being  made  upon  the  time  and  energy  of 
every  missionary  doctor  on  the  field  leaves  very  little  room  indeed  for 
home  visitation  and  the  "private"  or  domestic  medical  practice  that  we 
are  most  familiar  with  in  the  home  land — and  the  crowd  in  the  waiting 
hall  of  the  dispensary  takes  a  long  time  to  pass  through  the  consulting 
room  and  receive  the  individual  examination  and  advice  of  the  physician. 
If  that  time  is  well  occupied  by  evangelistic  effort  on  the  part  of  some 
of  the  staff  of  the  mission  much  good  may  result,  but  much  of  the  value 
of  the  missionary  doctor  is  lost  if  he  does  not  himself  take  a  leading  part 
in  this  evangelistic  work. 

The  daily  ward  services  and  individual  talks  with  the  patients  during 
days  of  convalescence  obviously  offer  immense  possibilities,  if  there  is 
only  permitted  enough  leisure  for  the  professional  workers — whether 
doctors  or  nurses — to  devote  themselves  to  the  cure  of  souls. 

THE  ACTUAL  SUCCESSES. 

The  practical  successes  of  medical  missions  in  every  country,  and 
throughout  the  whole  history  of  modern  missions,  can  be  abundantly 
demonstrated.  The  man  who  acted  as  '^ path-finder"  for  modern  mis- 
sions and  became  the  first  colleague  of  Dr.  William  Carey,  in  Bengal,  was 
John  Thomas,  a  qualified  surgeon ;  and  the  first  baptized  Hindu  convert 
of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  the  first  Indian  to  join  our  Baptist 
brotherhood — Krishna  Chandra  Pal,  of  Serampore — was  converted 
through  the  agency  of  medical  missions.  The  resetting  of  a  broken  arm 
proved  a  most  convincing  argument  for  the  Christian  faith,  and  led  to 
the  salvation  of  a  man  who  became  a  most  remarkable  witness  to  the 
gospel.  In  more  recent  years  we  have  seen  lands  like  Korea  and  For- 
mosa opening  up  to  the  influence  of  the  gospel  largely  in  response  to  the 
ministry  of  healing. 

III.     The  Present  Opportunities  and  Needs  Among  Moslems. 

The  World  Missionary  Conference  report  declares  this  method  to  be 
the  most  effective  for  carrying  the  gospel  into  Mohammedan  hearts  and 
homes. 

Where  Christian  theology  and  even  Christian  ethics  are  resisted  with 
fanatical  zeal  by  the  followers  of  Mohammed,  where  public  preaching  is 
almost  impossible  either  through  the  laws  of  the  rulers  or  the  tolerance  of 
the  populace;  where  Christian  schools  are  avoided  and  Christian  books 
are  destroyed,  in  such  Moslem  lands  the  Christian  hospital  can  still 
attract  patients  grateful  to  receive  the  skilled  and  gracious  help  that  is 
so  needed  and  so  vainly  sought  elsewhere. 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  283 

IN  AFRICA. 

The  critical  position  to-day  in  respect  to  the  great  religion  of  Islam, 
and  the  urgency  of  a  strong  evangelistic  propaganda  directed  towards 
both  the  conversion  of  Moslems  to  Christ  and  the  saving  of  those  pagan 
races  of  Africa  that  are  in  danger  of  being  swept  into  the  ranks  of  the 
Mohammedans,  point  to  the  importance  of  more  advantage  being  taken 
of  Christian  Medical  Agency  in  Mohammedan  lands. 

AMONG  ANIMISTS  AND  THE  SLAVES  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 

Of  the  effectiveness  of  medical  missions  among  those  who  are  in  spir- 
itual bondage  to  witchcraft,  in  loosening  the  grip  of  that  fearful  tyranny, 
it  is  needless  to  produce  any  proof.  "The  dark  places  of  the  earth  are 
full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty"  and  no  places  need  more  and  no  places 
will  respond  more  readily  to  the  merciful  kindness  of  Christian  healing. 

MEDICAL  WORK  FOR  WOMEN. 

Emphatic  reference  must  be  laid  here  to  the  open  door  that  even  the 
Zenana  and  Harem  offer  to  Christian  medical  women.  The  appalling 
amount  of  suffering  among  the  Avomen  of  India  and  Mohammedan  lands, 
where  the  two-fold  evil  of  child  marriage  and  the  seclusion  of  women  so 
largely  prevails,  ought  to  touch  the  hearts  of  their  Christian  sisters  with 
a  passionate  longing  and  determination  to  mitigate  their  pain  and  bring 
to  them  in  their  misery  the  comfort  of  Christian  love. 

The  increase  in  the  numbers  of  Christian  women  doctors  and  nurses, 
both  foreign  and  native,  which  has  taken  place  in  recent  years,  ought 
to  be  multiplied  over  and  over  again.  And  it  would  be  if  knowledge  of 
the  facts  could  be  linked  to  genuine  devotion  to  our  Saviour  Lord. 

IV.     The  Limits  and  Perils  of  Medical  Missions. 

Success  in  every  sustained  human  effort  depends  on  recognizing  the 
limits  of  the  undertaking.  We  as  often  fail  from  attempting  too  much, 
as  from  striving  too  little. 

IT  IS  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  CIVIL  POWER. 

It  may  seem  absurdly  obvious  to  remark  that  existing  Christian  mis- 
sionary societies  cannot  possibly  expect  to  bring  expert  medical  and  sur- 
gical aid  within  the  reach  of  all  the  millions  of  the  non-Christian  world. 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  claim  that  our  civilized  governments  of  Europe 
and  America  have  yet  accomplished  that  desirable  object  in  our  own 
countries  of  the  West. 

We  may  admit  at  once  that  it  is  not  directly  and  positively  a  part  of 
the  church's  business  to  do  that.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  civil  authority, 
and  wherevei-,  and  just  in  proportion  as  that  authority  is  enlightened  it 
will  fulfil  that  part  of  its  duty.  If  all  our  churches  at  home  had  to  open 
and  manage  dispensaries  and  hospitals  for  the  poor  the  fact  would  ex- 
press a  shocking  condemnation  of  the  governments  under  which  we  live. 
Where  there  is  adequate  medical  and  surgical  provision  in  the  community 
either  privately  for  those  who  have  sufficient  means,  or  publicly  for  those 


284  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

who  are  indigent,  the  Church  of  Christ  as  an  organization  will  naturally 
and  properly  assist  the  medical  faculty  to  do  its  own  work  by  its  re- 
spectful and  admiring  support  and  a  becoming  abstinence  from  any  in- 
terference. Our  commission  is  to  ''preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature." 
The  normal  condition  in  which  we  find  our  fellow-creatures  is  health  not 
sickness.  The  lusty  and  strong  may  be  those  who  need  our  gospel  most — 
and  even  where  there  are  many  sick  there  may  already  be  provision  for 
their  treatment.  Our  business  is  to  make  disciples  of  them,  teaching 
them  to  observe  whatsoever  Christ  has  commanded  us.  There  are,  here 
and  there,  in  heathen  lands  to-day,  places  where  medical  missions  are  not 
a  pressing  need,  though  the  people  wait  to  hear  the  saving  message  of  the 
gospel. 

We  do  not  advocate  Medical  Missions  being  established  by  the  church 
through  its  missionary  societies  in  places  such  as  the  Indian  town  in 
which  I  lived  for  nine  years — where,  in  addition  to  the  government  hos- 
pital and  dispensary  outposts,  we  had  several  Hindu  graduates  of  the 
Calcutta  Medical  College,  and  two  Indian  Christian  graduates  of  Edin- 
burgh University  engaged  as  medical  practitioners.  It  was,  and  still  is, 
a  place  of  great  Hindu  bigotry,  a  centre  of  Jagannath  worship  and  in 
great  need  of  evangelistic  work,  but  it  would  have  been  otfensive  and 
wasteful  both  of  money  and  strength  for  the  missionary  society  to  em- 
ploy a  medical  man  in  that  particular  town  while  in  vast  stretches  of 
the  Indian  Empire  it  is  declared  to  be  the  fact  that  not  5  per  cent  of 
the  population  is  within  five  miles'  reach  of  a  qualified  doctor. 

The  instance  I  have  quoted  is,  of  course,  an  outstanding  exception 
now,  but  with  the  advance  of  Christianity  and  education  it  becomes  a 
more  frequent  thing  to  find  Christian  physicians  in  many  towns  in  India 
and  China.  Though  the  need  for  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen 
may  still  be  as  great  to-day  in  that  Hindu  town  to  which  I  have  refer- 
red" there  will  not  remain  to  us  the  same  gracious  opportunities 
and  we  shall  not  be  able  in  the  same  way  to  press  the  urgency  of  medical 
missions. 

The  highest  success  of  Medical  Missions  grows  out  of  the  recognition 
of  this  limitation. 

The  true  aim  of  a  missionary  society  is  to  render  itself  unnecessary; 
medical  missions,  like  all  other  agencies,  must  work  for  their  own  ex- 
tinction. When  the  uncivilized  African  is  enlightened  the  missionary 
will  not  need  to  make  his  own  bricks  and  build  his  own  houses.  When 
the  Chinese  Government  has  laid  hold  of  all  the  apparatus  of  Western 
University  education,  the  foreign  missionaries  will  not  be  required, 
indeed  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  lead  Chinese  education  as  they  do 
to-day. 

And  just  as  the  best  work  the  educational  missionary  can  do  is  to 
train  native  Christian  teachers  to  extend  Christian  education,  and  the 
most  potent  missionary  agency  of  all  is  the  trained  native  preacher,  so 
in  the  department  of  medical  mission  work,  the  finest  and  most  per- 
manent service  that  can  be  rendered  to  the  cause  of  Christian  missions 
by  the  physician  and  surgeon,  is  the  training  of  native  Christian  physi- 
cians, surgeons,  and  nurses.  What  may  we  not  hope  of  the  eight  hun- 
dred native  Christian  men  and  Avomen  now  studying  medicine  in  Prot- 
estant missionary  colleges'? 

What  possibilities  for  any  single  country  lie  in  the  winning  of  this 


Friday,  Juno  23.]  RECORD  OF  PR0CEED1N08.  285 

noble  profession  to  the  service  of  Christianity  by  giving  to  a  goodly 
number  in  the  tirst  generations  of  Christians  the  knowledge  of  medi- 
cine? And  while  science  is  making  its  irresistible  advance  into  Eastern 
lands  it  is  the  serious  duty  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  see  that  the  new 
weapons  are  put  into  Christian  hands.  In  China  this  is  being  done  in 
our  missionary  colleges  and  is  one  of  the  most  hopeful  of  indirect  mis- 
sionary methods. 

PERILS. 

The  greatest  perils  that  assail  medical  missions  are  those  which  have 
both  their  chief  causes  and  also  their  cure    in  the  church  at  home. 

The  greatest  danger  about  medical  mission  Avork  is  that  we  shall  not 
do  it  thoroughly  enough.  By  want  of  thoroughness  I  do  not  mean  merely 
the  want  of  proper  apparatus  for  modern  hospital  treatment.  It  is  as- 
tonishing what  wonderfully  good  results  can  be,  and  are  actually 
achieved  by  our  skilled  and  resourceful  missionary  doctors  with  very 
simple  appliances.  Of  course  they  deserve  the  best  and  most  complete 
equipment  Ave  can  afford  to  give  them. 

I  certainly  do  not  impugn  the  quality  of  personal  gifts  or  profes- 
sional education  of  our  medical  missionaries.  They  compare  not  i;nfav- 
orably  with  any  section  of  the  missionaiy  staff,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  re- 
joicing that  so  many  highly  qualified  men  and  women  who  would  have 
adorned  their  professions  in  the  home  lands  have  devoted  their  lives 
to  this  noble  service  for  Christ  and  for  the  world. 

More  must  be  done  in  future  to  give  them  time  for  that  preparation 
which  is  required  over  and  above  their  professional  education — in  order 
to  make  them  efficient  missionary  workers. 

This  must,  of  course,  include  leisure  to  master  the  language  and  un- 
derstand the  religious  ideas  of  the  people.  We  are  too  eager  that  they 
should  assume  practice  on  their  arrival  in  the  field,  and  undertake  re- 
sponsible posts  in  our  organization,  and  so  the  highest  interests  are 
sacrificed  to  lesser  interests,  and  the  direct  spiritual  results  of  medical 
missions  are  less  than  they  would  otherwise  be. 

The  danger  of  subordinating  the  spiritual  to  the  physical  ideal  in 
medical  missions  is  real  and  is  recognized,  I  venture  to  declare,  by  no- 
body more  clearly  than  by  our  missionary  doctors. 

There  are  people  in  our  Christian  lands,  and  in  our  churches,  perhaps 
among  the  supporters  of  missions,  who  seem  to  think — who  speak  as  if 
they  thought — that  it  were  a  more  Christian  thing  to  give  a  man  physic 
than  to  tell  him  of  Christ — to  bandage  his  arm  than  to  save  his  soul. 
They  are  not  easily  persuaded  to  admit  that  more  good  is  accomplished, 
both  for  the  individual  himself  and  for  his  community,  by  leading  a  pa- 
tient to  seek,  through  Jesus  Christ,  God's  pardon  for  sin,  than  by  rid- 
ding his  system  of  malarial  fever. 

But  the  best  safeguard  against  medical  missions  lowering  their  ideals, 
losing  their  spiritual  energy,  is  in  making  them,  wherever  they  are  es- 
tablished, as  thorough  as  possible.  The  notorious  fact  is  that  of  the 
five  hundred  and  fifty  mission  hospitals  in  existence,  a  great  part  ha^^e 
only  one  physician  to  give  his  attention  to  the  entire  work.  A  mission 
hospital  with  only  one  doctor  is  almost  an  absurdity.  In  such  a  situation 
the  doctor  cannot  have  time  for  doing  his  work  thoroughly,  either  in  his 
hospital  or  his  preaching  hall,  or  in  his  private  visitation. 

Now,  in  any  case  a  medical  mission  involves  considerable  cost.    Of  all 


286  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

work  this  kind  can  least  suffer  to  be  stinted.  It  is  a  more  expensive 
kind  of  work  than  any  other  that  missionary  societies  are  doing,  and  it 
is,  therefore,  wasteful  to  incur  the  expense  of  a  mission  hospital  equip- 
ment at  all  unless  its  missionary  opportunities  are  utilized  to  the  fullest 
extent.  To  do  this  a  sufficient  staff  is  called  for  to  safeguard  the  insti- 
tution against  the  risk  of  raising  prejudices  on  account  of  failures  in  the 
treatment  of  patients  where  success  might  be  so  valuable,  and  to  enable 
those  who  minister  to  the  body  to  be  also  the  messengers  of  the  truth  to 
the  mind,  and  the  instruments  whereby  souls  may  be  led  into  life  and 
peace. 

We  are  all  too  much  tempted  to  materialism.  We  are  anxious  for  our 
life,  what  we  shall  eat,  and  what  we  shall  drink,  and  wherewithal  we  shall 
be  clothed.  It  is  easy  for  us  to  conclude  that  good  and  comfortable 
health  is  more  important  than  good  character,  and  freedom  from  pain  is 
of  greater  worth  than  freedom  from  covetousness  and  pride.  Who  can 
so  well  preach  the  contrary  doctrine  as  a  Christian  physician  missionary? 
We  want  the  church  at  home  to  believe  that  the  highest  and  most-to-be- 
coveted  achievement  of  the  physician  in  the  medical  mission  is  to  lead  a 
soul  to  faith  in  Christ.  When  the  church  really  pours  out  its  heart  in 
the  prayer  which  is  founded  on  that  faith,  all  mission  work  among  the 
heathen  will  prosper. 

There  is  open  to  our  young  men  and  women  of  culture  and  ambition 
a  career  than  which  no  servant  of  God  could  desire  a  nobler,  in  the  medi- 
cal service  of  foreign  missions. 

We  who  dwell  at  home  in  ease  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  com- 
forts and  helps  that  science  and  good  government  bring  us,  may  well 
covet  the  privilege  of  serving,  as  our  means  permit,  our  fellow-men  and 
women,  even  if  it  were  only  to  the  extent  of  the  medical  help  that  we  may 
contribute  to  supply. 

But  the  physical  is  only  a  parable  of  the  spiritual  need.  Let  us  re- 
member that  to  the  measure  in  lohich  it  is  possible  for  us  to  lessen  it 
we  are  responsible  before  God  for  the  extent  to  which  heathenism  holds 
sway  in  the  world  in  our  lifetime. 

Pity,  humane  feeling,  a  sense  of  indebtedness  for  mercies  we  have 
received,  all  these  motives  may  prompt  us — but  above  all  is  the  longing 
to  satisfy  the  heart  of  Him  to  whom  we  owe  all  things  and  whom  it  will 
be  heaven  itself  to  hear  declare  ''Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one 
of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren  ye  have  done  it  unto  ME. ' ' 

(Applause.) 

Chairman  :  We  will  accord  a  very  hearty  welcome  to  the  next  speaker, 
the  Kev.  Dr.  E.  C.  Morris,  of  Arkansas,  who  will  address  us  on  "Negro 
Work  for  the  Negro."     (Applause.) 

THE  NEGRO  WORK  FOR  THE  NEGRO. 

By  Rev.  E.  0.  MORRIS,  D.  D.,  President  National  Baptist  Convention, 

Helena,  Ark. 

Brother  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Having  had  the  honor  of  attending  the  first  meeting  of  the  Baptist 
World  Alliance,  and  having  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  making  a  few 
remarks  in  that  meeting,  I  deem  it  extraordinary  to  be  given  a  place  on 


Friday,  June  23.]  h'/X'OlW  OF  PROCEEDINGfi.  287 

the  program  at  this  time,  and  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  fully  appreciate 
the  distinction  that  this  appointment  gives. 

I  recognize  that  I  am  speaking  to  the  representatives  of  an  irresistible 
arm}-  of  Christians — tliose  -who  are  in  line  with  the  direct  successors  of 
the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ  and  who,  upon  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ, 
are  as  firm  as  Gibraltar.  To  be  in  the  presence  of  such  representatives  is 
sutficient  to  give  renewed  inspiration  and  courage  to  any  speaker. 

You  will  pardon  reference  to  the  fact,  that  while  I  appear  to  you  as  a 
Baptist,  yet  I  come  as  the  representative  of  a  denomination  of  Christian 
people  commonly  known  in  the  United  States  as  Negro  Baptists,  whose 
principal  missionary  organization  is  the  National  ^Baptist  Convention. 
While  these  are  not  different  in  doctrine  or  practice,  they  are  separate 
and  distinct  from  the  white  Baptists  in  many  things.  But  we  are  proud 
of  the  fact  that  we  represent  one-third  of  all  the  Baptists  in  the  world, 
having  a  certified  membership  of  two  million  two  hundred  and  sixty-one 
thousand  communicants. 

I  am  asked  to  speak  upon  ''The  Negro  Work  for  the  Negro."  This 
theme  as  indicated  is  in  plain  accord  with  the  polity  of  American  Baptists 
as  well  as  with  my  own  ideas  as  to  the  most  effective  way  to  direct  re- 
ligious efforts  among  any  people.  It  is  not  to  be  understood,  however, 
that  there  are  or  should  be  any  color  or  racial  lines  drawn  in  the  king- 
dom of  grace,  but  rather  it  is  my  purpose  to  give  emphasis  to  the  fact 
that  in  undertaking  anj'  great  work  the  matter  of  adaptability  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  the  employment  of  factors,  if  success  is  to  abun- 
dantly follow  the  effort. 

There  are  no  examples  set  or  commands  given  by  the  Son  of  God  that 
cannot  be  followed  with  the  assurance  of  success,  and  in  sending  forth 
His  disciples  on  one  occasion  He  said  to  them,  "Be  ye,  therefore,  wise 
as  serpents,  and  harmless  as  doves,"  and  in  going  forth  to  bear  the 
precious  message  of  the  gospel,  it  is  well  to  consider  this  saying  of  the 
Master  so  as  to  be  fully  able  to  overcome  Avhatever  idiosyncrasies, 
superstitions,  jealousies,  and  prejudices  that  may  be  encountered  in  the 
non-Christian  world.  To  one  living  in  this  day  and  generation,  it  seems 
remarkably  strange  how  much  aversion  existed  between  the  Jews  and 
Samaritans  at  the  time  that  the  Son  of  God  was  on  earth,  and  that 
spirit  had  to  be  disposed  of  before  the  gospel  could  have  free  course,  or 
before  the  Jews  would  have  anj'  dealings  with  the  Samaritans. 

Then,  again,  I  may  be  pardoned  for  saying,  that  in  the  employment  of 
agencies,  an  All-Wise  God  may  choose  to  send  a  Michael  to  a  Daniel,  or 
send  him  to  defend  a  Moses  against  the  imperialism  of  Satan;  or  He  may 
send  a  Gabriel  to  Zacharias  to  convey  Heaven 's  message  as  to  the  fore- 
runner of  the  Avorld's  Redeemer,  and  while  it  is  not  given  to  men  to  rea- 
son why,  we  know  that  these  heavenly  messengers  were  adapted  to  the 
specific  duties  they  performed,  and  there  is  no  ground  for  believing  one 
to  be  inferior  to  the  other. 

The  late  Wendell  Phillips,  in  delivering  an  address  upon  the  life  and 
character  of  Hayti's  military  wonder,  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  said,  ''The 
muse  of  historj'  will  put  Phocion  for  the  Greeks,  Brutus  for  the  Romans, 
Lafayette  for  France,  Hampden  for  England,  and  choose  Washington 
for  the  bright  flower  of  our  earlier  civilization."  If  that  noted  philan- 
thropist was  justified  in  selecting  the  honored  sons  of  these  great  coun- 
tries as  their  natural  and  proper  representatives,  I  should  not  be  too 


288  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

severely  criticised  for  saying,  that  the  most  logical  and  acceptable  am- 
bassador to  bear  the  message  of  salvation  to  the  Negroes,  is  the  Negro. 

Let  me  localize  my  subject  for  a  brief  moment.  For  a  number  of  years 
following  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  in  this  country,  the  great  heart  of 
the  Christian  people  North  and  South  went  out  to  the  emancipated,  and 
many  devout  white  Christians  came  to  the  Negro  people  to  do  missionary 
and  educational  work  among  them.  Their  effort  met  with  signal  suc- 
cess. But  as  the  Negro  people  became  educated,  it  developed  that  they 
preferred  teachers  and  preachers  from  among  their  own  race;  hence,  the 
strength  of  the  race  was  turned  towards  educating  teachers  and  preach- 
ers, so  as  to  supply  their  schools  and  churches.  The  Negroes  felt,  and 
rightly  so,  I  think,  that  their  ministers  and  teachers  should  associate  with 
them,  should  eat  and  drink  in  their  humble  homes,  and  do  by  contact,  by 
social  example  much  that  could  not  be  done  by  anyone  in  the  schoolroom 
or  pulpit  alone.  Owing  to  the  wide  race  distinctions,  this  could  not 
become  a  rule  with  the  white  ministers  and  teachers,  and  the  most  that 
they  could  do  without  sacrificing  their  social  standing  among  their  own 
people,  was  to  preach,  teach,  and  baptize  the  Negroes.  The  Negroes,  as  a 
rule,  were  opposed  to  the  social  intermingling  of  the  races,  preferring  to 
maintain  their  peculiar  racial  identity.  Hence,  the  demand  for  Negro 
churches  and  Negro  preachers  became  imperative. 

In  the  matter  of  separation  in  the  church  life  of  the  people  on  this 
continent,  the  blacks  have  been  the  beneficiaries  to  a  very  large  extent. 
This  has  enabled  them  in  the  forty-five  years  of  their  freedom  to  estab- 
lish more  than  one  hundred  high  schools  and  colleges,  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand church  houses  with  a  valviation  of  forty  million  dollars.  They  have 
also  twenty-five  thousand  ordained  ministers,  and  more  than  ten  thousand 
well-educated  men  and  women  who  are  teaching  in  schools  and  preaching 
in  churches,  while  others  are  successfully  following  the  professions  of 
law  and  medicine  and  all  other  vocations.  Then,  again,  the  Negroes  have 
enrolled  fully  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  entire  race  in  this  country  in  Christian 
churches.  This,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  showing  which  cannot  be  made  by  any 
other  race  in  so  short  a  time,  and  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  Negro 
people  regard  their  ministers  as  their  God-appointed  leaders,  and,  as  a 
rule,  accept  their  teaching  without  question. 

But  in  speaking  of  the  Negro  work  for  the  Negro,  we  are  including  a 
larger  range  of  thought  and  territory  than  that  which  applies  to  the 
Negroes  of  the  United  States,  and  we  hope  to  make  it  plain  that  the 
Negroes  of  the  United  States  are  the  logical  Christian  leaders  of  the 
black  people  of  the  world. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  Negroes'  life  as  freemen  in  the  United  States, 
a  wise  Providence  directed  that  the  race  should  make  as  the  base  of  its 
future  the  principles  of  Christianity,  taking  as  guide,  that  Scripture  which 
says,  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and  all 
these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  They  believed  then  and  believe 
now  that  whatever  else  is  necessary  to  complete  a  well-rounded  Chris- 
tian civilization  must  follow  in  its  time.  That  their  choice  was  wise 
will  be  seen  by  making  comparison  with  other  emancipated  people  who 
were  emancipated  during  the  past  century. 

The  blacks  of  South  America  were  liberated  more  than  a  score  of 
years  before  freedom  came  to  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States,  and  I 
mean  no  unfavorable  criticism  when  I  say  that  it  appears  from  present 
conditions  that  the  black  people  of  South  America  turned  their  atten- 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORU  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  289 

tion  principally  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  secular  education, 
which  indeed  are  essential  elements  in  the  well-being  and  growth  of  any 
people.  But  these  when  used  as  a  foundation  will  prove  a  shameful 
failure.  Hence,  our  South  American  brethren  in  black  are  lacking  in 
those  Christian  graces  of  self-control,  forbearance,  perseverance  and  the 
like  which  have  rendered  the  achievements  of  the  Negro  of  the  United 
States  a  wonder  of  the  world.  What  is  said  of  the  blacks  of  South 
America  may  be  applied  with  some  emphasis  to  the  black  people  of  the 
West  Indies  and  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  Negroes 
of  the  United  States  have  become  the  logical  Christian  leaders  of  the 
black  people  of  the  whole  world  and  are  to-day  giving  the  gospel  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  those  of  their  race  who  were  free  many  years  before  they 
were. 

As  further  evidence  on  this  point,  and  to  strengthen  the  proposition 
that  the  Negro  is  the  most  acceptable  and  successful  ambassador  to  bear 
the  messag'e  of  redeeming  grace  to  the  people  of  his  race,  I  submit  you 
an  official  reference  to  the  great  work  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the 
National  Baptist  Convention.  The  Secretaiy  of  that  Board  in  speaking 
of  the  glorious  achievements  of  the  Negro  Baptists  among  the  dark  races 
of  the  earth  says,  ''As  Negro  Baptists  we  have  more  than  sixty  churches 
and  missions  in  Africa;  eight  in  the  West  Indies;  five  in  South  America, 
with  between  eleven  and  twelve  thousand  baptized  believers  enrolled  on 
the  books." 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Negro  Baptists  have  only  been 
organized  for  Foreign  Mission  work  thirty  years,  and  when  these  facts 
are  laid  alongside  the  earnest,  devout,  persistent  efforts  of  the  Boards 
among  our  white  brethren  to  accomplish  results  among  these  same  peo- 
ple, it  will  be  clearly  seen  that  it  would  have  been  far  better  if  it  had 
been  always  recognized  that  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  National 
Baptist  Convention  is  the  best  medium  through  which  to  make  contribu- 
tions towards  fostering  this  particular  line  of  work,  or  to  have  employed 
Negro  ministers  as  missionaries  for  this  work.  In  making  this  sugges- 
tion we  do  not  assume  to  advise  the  missionary  Boards  among  our  white 
brethren,  but  to  earnestly  invite  them  to  consider  first  of  all  the  adapta- 
bility of  the  agents  to  bear  the  message  in  the  light  of  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  those  to  whom  the  message  is  sent. 

I  think  it  will  be  readily  admitted  that  one  of  the  most  effectual  ways 
of  spreading  the  gospel  is  found  in  the  house  to  house  work,  and  to  be 
able  to  do  this  house  to  house  preaching  the  preacher  must  be  taken  into 
the  full  confidence  of  the  people  and  must  be  willing  to  put  himself  on 
race  equality  with  the  people,  or  they  spurn  the  message  that  he  brings. 
So  long  as  there  are  any  to  say  that  He  has  gone  to  be  guest  with  a  man 
that  is  a  sinner,  so  long  will  it  be  necessary  to  employ  great  tact  in  deliv- 
ering the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  different  types  of  the  human 
familj'. 

But,  my  friends,  I  would  have  you  know  that  it  is  a  condition  which 
warrants  what  I  have  here  said.  For  I  firmly  believe  that  the  time  w^ill 
come  when  there  will  be  ''neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  bond  nor  free"  white 
nor  black,  European  nor  American,  Asiatic  or  African  in  the  kingdom  of 
God,  but  all  will  be  one  in  Christ  Jesus. 

But  until  that  time  shall  come,  we  should  Avork  along,  recognizing  the 
metes  and  bounds  set  by  an  All-Wise  Creator,  who  will,  in  His  own  time 
and  way  level  the  hills  and  mountains;  and  raise  up  the  valleys,  until 

^       19 


290  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

this  division  of  labor  and  distribution  of  tasks  shall  unite  to  promote 
the  oneness  of  Christ  and  His  cause  the  world  over. 

The  system  of  religion  which  we  profess  should  be  prompted  by  Chris- 
tian patience  and  evangelical  diplomacy  and  not  by  personal  or  racial 
selfishness  or  prejudice.  It  was  said  by  a  distinguished  Southern 
churchman  some  years  ago  that  ''if  he  who  is  called  the  Prince  of 
Peace  cannot  rid  the  gospel  of  every  taint  of  selfishness,  if  He  is  not 
able  to  make  all  His  followers  one  in  Him  and  to  save  to  the  uttermost 
all  who  trust  in  Him  then  He  is  unable  to  save  a  single  being. ' '  I  would 
add  to  this  significant  statement,  that  if  He  who  is  presented  in  Holy 
Writ  as  one  going  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  should  pause  in  His 
triumphant  march  to  draw  a  line  of  distinction  between  His  loyal  fol- 
lowers because  of  race  or  color,  then  His  kingdom  is  unfit  for  the  habi- 
tation of  men  or  angels,  and  He  would  be  unworthy  of  the  worship  of 
the  humblest  creature  of  earth. 

But  we  lay  no  charge  at  His  door,  for  He  is  the  same  Lord  over  all 
and  to  all  the  people,  and  will,  in  His  own  time  and  way  bring  about 
that  time  when  there  mil  be  no  lines  of  caste  among  the  children  of  the 
great  King,  but  all  shall  be  one  in  Him.  But  until  that  time  shall  come, 
when  these  lines  shall  be  broken  down  and  the  monster,  race  prejudice 
has  been  dethroned  and  there  shall  be  but  one  family  recognized  among 
men,  and  that,  the  human  family,  it  seems  to  me  the  logical  man, 
the  acceptable  ambassador  to  bear  the  message  of  redeeming  grace  to 
the  Negro  people,  is  the  Negro. 

In  conclusion  allow  me  to  say,  using  the  words  of  a  distinguished 
Negro  preacher,  that,  "when  the  day  of  final  reckoning  shall  come,  and 
when  the  three  sons  of  Noah  who  were  separated  on  the  plains  of  Shinar, 
shall  again  meet  as  one  family  to  render  an  account  of  their  steward- 
ship, that  the  sons  of  Ham  will  not  be  ashamed  of  the  report  they  shall 
be  able  to  make." 

Not  only  did  they  give  shelter  and  protection  to  the  infant  Saviour, 
when  Mary,  His  mother,  and  Joseph  fled  from  the  Avrath  of  Herod,  but 
bore  the  cross  after  Him  amid  the  jeers  and  derision  of  His  wicked 
persecutors. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  We  are  now  to  have  an  address  on  "Laymen  and  Mis- 
sions" by  Dr.  A.  P.  McDiarmid,  of  Canada.     (Applause.) 


LAYMEN  AND  MISSIONS. 
By  Pres.  A.  P.    McDIARMID,  Brandon  College,  Manitoba. 

The  subject  assigned  me,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the  function  and  obli- 
gation of  "laymen"  in  missionary  operations  for  the  Christianizing  of 
the  world. 

"All  ye  are  brethren."  The  principle  of  democracy  fundamental  to 
our  denominational  organization  debars  recognition  of  hierarchical  or- 
ders. We  accept  the  term  "laymen"  only  as  a  convenient  term  to  indi- 
cate those  not  engaged  in  certain  well-understood  official  service  in  the 
church.  The  term  embraces  those  in  the  church  not  occupied  officially  in 
the  preaching,  teaching,  and  shepherding  ministry.    In  some  respects  it  is 


Friday,  June   23.]  UKVOUD  OF  I'liOCEEDlSUti.  291 

unfortunate  that  we  apply  so  exclusively  the  phrase,  ' '  the  Christian  Min- 
istry," to  the  one  form  of  service.  It  tends  to  lift  the  burden  of  respon- 
sibility of  Christian  service  off  the  shoulders  of  those  in  the  church  not 
occupying-  this  particular  office.  Every  Christian  should  be  a  Christian 
minister,  making  his  life-work  minister  to  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Chi'ist — 
but  not  all  in  the  same  form  of  service.  By  "laymen"  then,  we  under- 
stand those  in  the  church  not  officially  engaged  in  preaching  and  pas- 
toral service. 

All  redeemed  men  and  women  alike  are  solemnly  obligated  to  the  ser- 
vice of  Christ.  Each  should  serve  in  the  sphere  in  which  the  service  will 
count  for  most.  "Minister"  so-called  and  "laymen"  so-called  are  obli- 
gated equally  to  Jesus  Christ,  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  other. 
This  is  not  commonly  recognized.  If  it  were,  the  Church  of  Christ  would 
take  on  power  for  service  that  would  startle  the  world.  It  is  beyond 
our  power  to  conceive  the  vastness  of  the  unused  forces  in  the  Church  of 
Christ— forces  that  ought  to  be  cheerfully  placed  at  His  command  for 
the  Christianizing  of  the  world. 

The  common  use  of  the  term  "Missions"  leaves  its  meaning  some- 
what ambiguous.  The  general  theme  of  which  mine  is  a  sub-topic  helps 
to  make  definite  the  meaning  the  term  appears  to  have  had  in  the  thought 
of  the  committee.  When  we  speak  of  "Christianizing  the  world"  we 
have  in  mind  something  wider  and  deeper  than  we  are  accustomed  to 
associate  with  the  phrase,  "Evangelizing  the  world."  One  of  the  most 
si)lendid  organizations  of  our  time  has  for  a  watchword,  '  *  The  Evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world  in  this  generation."  This  may  be  conceived  a  possi- 
bility if  the  Church  of  Christ  should  rise  to  its  responsibility.  But  in 
the  nature  of  the  work  to  be  done  can  we  think  of  the  Christianizing 
of  the  world  as  possible  in  a  generation?  The  latter  is  a  vastly  greater 
enterprise  than  the  bringing  of  the  gospel  to  all  mankind.  It  means  the 
permeating  of  the  whole  order  of  human  life  with  the  principle  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  means  the  dominance  of  that  which  is  dis- 
tinctive in  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  in  the  society  and  business 
and  government  of  the  world.  It  means  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth 
and  world-wide.  Do  Christian  missions,  as  commonly  understood,  aim  at 
iess  than  this?    If  they  do,  is  it  not  time  to  revise  our  thought  of  them? 

What  does  this  Baptist  World  Alliance  mean  when  it  issues  its  call  to 
the  great  body  it  represents  to  rise  with  one  united  purpose  to  the  ser- 
vice of  Christ  in  the  work  of  Christian  missions?  Is  the  conception 
merely  of  evangelizing  the  world,  or  is  it  the  deeper  and  fuller  thought 
of  Christianizing  the  world?  Is  it  merely  the  call  of  the  gospel  to  gather 
out  of  the  world  citizens  for  a  kingdom  yonder  in  heaven,  or  is  it  to 
bring  into  glorious  realization  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth?  The 
conception  we  entertain  in  this  regard  will,  in  important  features,  deter- 
mine our  notion  of  the  functions  and  duties  of  the  church  as  they  per- 
tain both  to  its  laymen  and  to  its  preaching  ministry.  The  saving  of 
the  individual  and  the  saving  of  the  individual  specially  for  another 
world  has  had  strong  emphasis.  There  has  come  about  in  some  measure 
in  our  time,  if  not  a  transfer,  a  distribution  of  emphasis.  Thought  and 
effort  are  being  in  larger  measure  directed  to  the  establishing  of  a  social 
order  on  the  earth  based  on  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  virtues. 
This  ought  not  to  mean,  as  it  does  not  mean,  and  cannot  in  any  effective 
service  mean,  that  the  claims  of  the  individual  are  ignored  or  that  his 
relation  to  the  other  world  passes  into  eclipse.     But  does  it  not  mean 


292  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

much  more  than  the  effort  to  save  the  individual  for  heaven?  Does  it 
not  mean  that  the  ideal  of  Christian  effort  should  not  stop  short  of  the 
infusing  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  as  a  dominating  force  into  all  human  life 
in  all  its  activities  and  relationships  right  here  on  the  earth?  Did  not 
Jesus  speak  even  more  about  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth  than  about 
heaven  itself?  Did  He  not  teach  us  to  pray,  "Thy  kingdom  come;  Thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven"?  Did  He  not  thus  throw  emphasis 
on  the  heavenly  order  of  human  life  on  the  earth?  Paul  interprets  the 
mind  of  Christ  by  reference  to  the  gifts  He  imparts  to  the  church  for 
service.  The  purpose  for  which  these  gifts  are  bestowed  is  to  bring  us 
all  through  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ.  The  propaganda  Jesus  ordered  did  not  stop  with  carrying 
the  evangel  to  all  the  world,  but  this  was  to  be  followed  up  by  the  teach- 
ing of  all  things  He  had  commanded, — of  all  things  concerning  the  life 
He  desired  the  world  should  have  and  have  in  abundance  through  His 
coming. 

With  this  broader  and  deeper  conception  of  missions  as  aiming  at 
Christianizing  the  world,  we  may  now  be  prepared  to  face  more  intelli- 
gently the  question  respecting  the  functions  and  duties  of  the  laymen 
of  the  church. 

I.  Is  'the  ''layman"  less  obligated  to  serve  Christ  in  the  cause  of 
Christian  Missions  than  is  the  "minister"  or  "missionary"? 

The  Burmese  people  designated  Adoniram  Judson,  "Jesus  Christ's 
man."  Was  Adoniram  Judson  more  obligated  to  be  "Jesus  Christ's 
man"  than  is  the  Christian  who  makes  plows  or  holds  the  plow;  than  is 
the  Christian  who  sells  goods  or  ministers  to  sick  bodies;  than  is  the 
Christian  who  is  engaged  in  the  problems  of  commerce  and  finance,  or 
sits  on  the  judicial  bench  or  in  the  legislative  hall?  Are  there  degrees 
in  the  demand  of  loyalty  and  consecration  to  Jesus  Christ  within  the 
circle  of  His  redeemed?  The  division  of  life  and  service  into  the  secu- 
lar and  the  sacred  is  perhaps  largely  responsible  for  the  conception  that 
there  is  diversity  of  standard  of  service  for  laymen  and  missionaries  re- 
spectively. Wle  expect  self-denial  and  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  mis- 
sionary that  we  do  not  seem  to  expect  from  the  Christian  manufacturer, 
lawyer,  or  legislator.  Apparently  there  has  been  set  a  Christian  stand- 
ard of  character  and  duty  for  the  one  to  which  we  do  not  hold  the 
other.  Do  the  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  furnish  justification  for 
this  dual  standard?  Does  Christ's  redemption  impose  larger  obligations 
upon  the  one  than  upon  the  other?  The  sphere  of  service  may  be  widely 
diverse,  but  is  there  diversity  in  tlie  degree  of  the  obligation  to  serve? 

Wherever  there  is  capacity  for  service,  loyalty  to  Christ  must  find 
expression  in  service.  The  waving  of  the  national  flag  is  no  necessary 
indication  of  genuine  patriotism.  A  man  shows  his  patriotism  by  serv- 
ing his  country  in  some  helpful  capacity.  The  persistent  shouting  for 
this  religious  doctrine  or  for  that — for  a  new  "doxy" — or  for  an  old 
"doxy" — is  not  necessarily  proof  of  heart-loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ.  It  is 
in  loving  service  that  costs  that  the  Christian  evidences  his  devotion  to 
his  Lord.  "Ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ."  The  service  of  love  was  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  Christ  life :  it  is  the  supreme  law  and  test  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  "The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  served,  but  to  serve  and  to 
give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many. "  "  As  He  was  so  are  we  in  this  world. ' ' 
"Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  have  done 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDISGS.  293 

it  unto  me. ' '  He  has  taught  us  that  service  is  the  essential  constituent  of 
greatness.  The  world  graduates  greatness  by  standards  of  material  lux- 
ury and  imperial  authority.  "Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you,  but  he  that 
is  great  among  you  shall  be  your  servant." 

The  following  utterance  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Macdonald,  of  the  Toronto  Globe, 
is  worthy  of  repetition:  ''Love  as  the  motive,  and  service  as  the  stand- 
ard, would  redeem  the  social  life  of  our  civilization  from  the  cruel  sel- 
fishness and  the  vulgar  luxury,  and  the  half -barbaric  rivaliies  that  keep 
wide  areas  of  society  in  a  meaningless  and  maddening  whirl.  There  is 
nothing  more  unchristian,  more  utterly  pagan  than  the  flaunting  ostenta- 
tion and  pride  and  idleness  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Have.  To 
parade  finer  clothes,  to  eat  richer  foods,  to  drink  rarer  wines  is  the 
notion  which  is  common  even  in  Canada,  and  which  material  prosperity 
only  feeds  and  spreads.  The  Christ-motive  and  the  Christ-.standard 
would  change  the  social  butterflies  into  angels  of  mercy  and  the  social 
parasites  into  useful  servants,  and  he  that  hath  two  coats  would  be  con- 
strained to  give  of  his  surplus  to  him  that  hath  none." 

The  wealth  of  the  Avorld  is  increasing  with  a  rapidity  never  before 
known.  The  peril  of  it  is  that  there  will  be  a  corresponding  increase  in 
haughty  pride,  extravagance,  and  wastefulness.  The  fascination  of 
swiftly  accumulating  wealth  tends  to  develop  the  spirit  of  materialism, 
of  vulgar  display,  and  of  imperialistic  haughtiness.  This  issue  w-rought 
the  ruin  of  ancient  empires.  It  works  the  ruin  of  human  life  always  and 
even-where.  There  is  but  one  salvation  of  the  age  in  which  we  live  from 
this  disintegrating  and  destroying  spirit.  Is  there  anything  else  that 
will  save  the  church  from  the  loss  of  the  power  to  Christianize  the  world 
but  the  cherished  possession  and  exercise  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ — the 
spirit  of  loving  self-denying  service?  Must  not  this  spirit  dominate  the 
lives  of  laymen  and  missionaries  alike?  Is  there  any  other  thing  that 
will  save  the  world,  under  the  existing  conditions  of  material  prosperity, 
from  the  selfish,  grinding,  cruel  spirit  of  materialism  that  practically  in- 
terprets the  doctrine  of  "the  survival  of  the  fittest"  in  the  heartless 
crushing  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  in  industrial,  commercial,  social  and 
national  life — anything  other  than  the  vital  spirit  of  Jesus  dominating 
His  church  as  a  whole  ? 

In  one  of  his  addresses  Robert  E.  Speer  employs  the  phrase,  "the  fi- 
duciary principle  of  life. ' '  It  carries  a  great  and  a  greatly  needed  mes- 
sage to  the  heart  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  a  splendid  crystallization 
of  the  true  philosophic  and  Christian  conception  of  human  life.  Life  is 
a  tiiist — a  trust  from  God.  A  trust  is  a  sacred  thing — a  trust  from  God 
is  supremely  sacred.  Our  life,  doubly  the  gift  of  God, — His  gift  and  His 
re-gift — is  not  ours  for  our  arbitrary,  self-seeking  disposal.  The  Chris- 
tian holds  a  trustee-ship  of  life.  For  what?  For  the  Christianizing  of 
the  world.  Is  this  true  of  the  missionary  alone?  Or  is  it  true  as  well 
and  as  fully  of  the  Christian  laymen?  What  answer  does  the  Christian 
conscience  give? 

II.  Wihat  is  the  service  demanded  through  missions  for  the  Chris- 
tianizing of  the  world? 

1.  The  first  step,  and  it  is  fundamentally  essential,  is  the  conversion 
of  the  individual  through  the  Evangel  of  Christ.  That  God's  will  may 
be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven,  the  personal  attitude  of  men  toward  God 
must  be  made  right.  The  changed  outward  conditions  desired  can  come 
only  through  the  changed  inward  life  of  men.    The  work  of  evangelizing 


294  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

is  the  first  service  of  the  church.    The  first  need  of  the  world  is  to  know 
the  holy  yet  forgiving  love  of  God  as  Jesus  Christ  manifested  it. 

2.     But  something  more  than  the  conversion  of  individuals  is  required 
under  the  trust  committed  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

No  individual  is  merely  an  individual.  The  social  factor  is  a  constitu- 
ent element  of  every  human  life.  In  virtue  of  this  every  man  is  a  mem- 
ber of  a  social  order.  His  life  is  a  constituent  element  of  a  larger  life. 
It  is  not  life  in  God  alone;  it  is  in  humanity  as  well.  Every  life  touches 
and  influences  and  is  reciprocally  touched  and  influenced  by  every  other 
life.  The  impact  of  those  far  remote  may  be  so  slight  as  to  be  imper- 
ceptible, but  yet  must  we  not  believe  it  is?  The  individual  cannot  live 
his  normal  life  and  grow  toward  his  normal  maturity  in  either  a  divine 
or  a  human  en\droning  vacuum.  He  cannot  come  to  his  own  without 
human  society.  And  thus,  for  the  sake  of  the  individual  even,  the  con- 
ditions of  human  society  cannot  be  ignored  in  the  work  of  the  church. 
A  kingdom  is  never  constituted  by  one  subject  and  a  sovereign,  nor  by 
any  number  of  subjects  in  isolation  from  each  other,  knowing  no  relation 
but  the  individual  relation  to  the  sovereign.  It  implies  environment,  the 
conditions  of  life  and  progress.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth  in- 
cludes not  merely  individual  Christians,  in  isolation  from  earthly  condi- 
tions and  associations,  holding  relation  to  God  away  off  in  heaven,  but 
of  these  Christians  with  all  that  goes  to  make  the  circumstances  of  their 
life-experience.  If  the  converted  individual  is  not  conditioned  for  the 
highest  use  and  development  of  his  life,  is  it  not  incumbent  on  the  church 
of  Christ  to  aim  at  so  conditioning  him?  This  may  involve  the  transfor- 
mation of  domestic,  social,  industrial,  comraercial  and  political  condi- 
tions. This  means,  as  the  ideal,  the  righting  of  all  that  is  wrong  in  hu- 
man relations.  It  involves  the  reformation  of  social  conditions — the 
righting  of  industrial,  commercial,  and  political  relations — the  remolding 
of  empires  and  the  achieving  of  the  brotherhood  of  nations.  In  a  word, 
is  not  the  ideal  of  the  service  of  the  church  the  bringing  about  of  the  real 
universal  brotherhood  of  man  through  the  common  fatherhood  of  God? 
Can  we  stop  short  of  this  if  we  pray  genuinely,  "Thy  Kingdom  come; 
Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven"?  In  teaching  us  to  pray 
this  prayer  does  it  not  seem  that  Jesus  designed  that  our  imagination 
should  be  caught  with  this  glorious  vision  of  a  heavenly  earth,  and  that 
our  lives  should  be  swept  resistlessly  on  under  the  sway  of  the  passion 
generated  by  this  sublime  ideal?  Does  not  Jesus  Himself  seem  to  have 
been  fascinated  by  the  prophecy  in  the  title  He  loved  to  ascribe  to  Him- 
self, "the  Son  of  man"?  In  it  it  would  seem  that  He  saw  the  passing  of 
all  that  is  inimical  to  human  brotherhood.  It  would  seem  as  if  in  it  He 
saAv  in  glowing  vision  above  and  beyond  all  the  strife  and  wrong  and  sel- 
fishness and  sin  of  the  seething  human  world  the  realization  of  the  su- 
preme passion  of  the  heart  of  infinite  love  and  holiness.  By  its  promise 
as  the  loved  self-designation  of  our  divine  Leader,  should  not  the  church 
be  inspired  with  a  holy  passion  for  the  achievement  which  it  assures? 
For  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  He  endured  the  cross,  despising 
the  shame.  We  need  vision — we  need  vision  of  the  Christ  and  His  splen- 
did triumph.  We  need  the  teaching  that  will  give  us  His  ideas  and  His 
ideals.  Who  can  measure  the  power  of  conquest  in  ideas — ideas  that 
seize  the  imagination  and  stir  the  deepest  and  purest  passions  of  the  soul? 
The  men  who  accomplish  things  are  men  caught  in  the  grip  of  great 
ideas.    Is  not  this  true  of  the  men  who  bring  things  to  pass  in  business 


Friday,  June  23.]  liECOIil)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  295 

and  political  life?  The  merchant  princes,  the  best  type  of  masters  of 
finance,  the  really  imperial  statesmen — -these  are  men  of  splendid  busi- 
ness and  political  vision — who  conceive  and  are  mastered  by  threat  ideas. 
Why  should  not  these  men — the  most  of  them,  and  the  best  of  them,  lay- 
men of  the  Christian  churches — have  the  transcendent  and  soul-capti- 
vating visions  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  so  held  before  tliem  that  they 
would  see  that  these  things  bulk  larger  than  the  greatest  conceptions 
that  have  ever  held  their  powers  in  masterful  service?  They  must  be 
got  to  see  that  earthly  kingdoms  or  kingships  are  immeasurably  trans- 
cended by  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  absolute  and  universal  King- 
ship of  Jesus  Christ.  The  world-peace  idea  has  caught  the  vision  of  the 
soul  of  Mr.  Carnegie,  and  his  ability  and  his  fortune  are  at  its  command. 
When  Christian  laymen  come  to  apprehend  the  supreme  significance  of 
the  relation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  world's  peace,  and  to  the  purity  and 
righteousness  without  which  the  world's  peace  can  never  be  pei'ma- 
nently  established,  this  idea  will  command  their  resources,  personal  and 
material,  to  the  sublimest  and  most  inspiring  of  all  services,  that  of 
Christianizing  the  world. 

The  Christian  pulpit  has  an  office  in  this  regard.  We  need  real  "proph- 
ets" in  our  pulpits  to-day — seers — men  of  vision — men  of  the  vision 
of  God — men  who  see  the  invisible — men  who  in  the  passion  of  their 
souls  for  the  supremacy  and  universality  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  can 
rouse  the  Church  of  God  to  see  and  obey  the  heavenly  vision.  We  need 
in  our  Christian  schools  men  of  the  like  type — who  can  plant  in  the  youth- 
ful minds  ideas  and  ideals — not  only  great  ideas,  but  greater  and  the 
greatest  ideas,  and  all  in  right  relation — who  know  how  to  impress  the 
soul  with  the  highest  ideals — who  know  how  to  lead  the  young  mind  to 
put  first  things  first — and  who  thus  send  out  into  the  world  a  new  gen- 
eration of  leaders  of  men  whose  ideal  is  that  God  should  hold  supreme 
place  in  life  and  purpose,  and  that  the  establishment  of  His  kingdom  is 
the  object  for  supreme  effort. 

3.  Further,  the  service  called  for  in  Christianizing  the  world  is  wisely 
organized  service.  The  design  of  organization  is  not  to  relieve  some  of 
service  by  imposing  it  on  others.  It  is  not  to  relieve  the  lay  element  in 
the  churches  from  personal  ser\-ice  by  transferi-ing  it  to  the  official  min- 
isters and  missionaries.  The  design  of  wise  organization  is  to  appor- 
,tion  for  greater  efficiency,  the  service  to  all  so  that  each  may  contribute 
that  which  he  is  best  qualified  to  do  for  the  realization  of  the  one  end. 

III.  What  does  efficiency  in  the  supreme  service  of  Christianizing  the 
world  require  of  the  laymen  of  our  churches  ? 

Tt  demands  of  them  in  common  with  ministers  and  missionaries  the 
consecration  of  their  lives  and  of  their  resources  to  this  one  supreme 
cause.  The  whole  life  of  the  whole  church  should  be  held  under  per- 
manent tribute  to  this  one  end.  We  may  not  need  to  abandon  our  pres- 
ent employments  in  order  to  consecrate  all  to  Christ  in  this  service,  but 
we  do  need  to  leave  all  we  cannot  make  tributary  to  the  service. 

Christian  missions  furnish  the  highest  standard  of  unselfish  abandon- 
ment to  a  great  cause  life  has  to  offer.  The  history  of  Christian  mis- 
sions presents  the  noblest  examples  of  unselfish  devotion  human  life  has 
shown.  And  was  it  not  in  this  same  cause  that  God  Himself  appears 
to  us  in  the  character  that  commands  our  profoundest  admiration  and  de- 
votion? Of  our  own  Baptist  body  William  Carey  and  Adoniram  Judson 
are   conspicuous   historic   examples.     The  memory   of  these  great   souls 


296  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

should  live  again  in  this  great  Baptist  world  gathering.  Their  memory 
should  come  to  this  body  as  a  great  inspiration  as  to-day  we  stand  eon- 
fronted  with  the  sublime  task  of  Christianizing  the  world,  the  task  which 
they  met  with  courage  and  self-abnegation  so  divinely  heroic.  This  gath- 
ering to-day  is  not  a  representative  world  gathering  of  ancient  "Parthi- 
ans  and  Medes  and  Elamites  and  the  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,"  but  of 
modern  Russians  and  Germans  and  Swedes  and  Frenchmen  and  British 
and  Americans  and  Canadians.  It  will  be  worth  our  while  to  have  come 
together  in  one  place  with  one  accord,  if  here  we  are  all  baptized  into  the 
spirit  of  consecration  that  marked  the  early  leaders  of  the  church  of 
Christ,  and  the  early  leaders  of  our  great  modern  missionary  move- 
ments. 

With  the  laymen  we  are  in  these  movements  specially  concerned.  What 
will  such  consecration  on  their  part  mean? 

1.  What  will  it  mean  in  the  supply  of  workers  for  the  world's  mis- 
sion field? 

The  lack  of  sufficient  workers  is  painfully  felt.  The  best  gifts  in  the 
families  of  our  churches  are  not  being  laid  on  the  altar  of  missionary 
service.  The  decision  of  the  life  purpose  of  our  choicest  young  men  and 
women  will  be  largely  determined  by  the  manifest  attitude  of  the  lay  ele- 
ment in  our  churches  toward  the  work  of  Christianizing  the  world.  If  on 
the  one  hand,  our  Christian  laymen  live  just  as  do  grasping,  selfish, 
li'xury-loving,  imperious-spirited  men  who  are  openly  and  frankly  of  the 
world,  the  youthful  mind  cannot  escape  the  infection  of  this  spirit.  The 
youthful  nature  is  just  as  open  to  it  as  the  child-system  is  to  the  measles. 
Under  these  conditions  can  we  expect  the  choicest  gifts  to  be  drawn  into 
the  service  of  direct  evangelical  work?  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
laym'en  of  our  churches  are  manifestly  giving  their  lives  in  unstinted, 
loving  devotion  to  the  great  mission  cause,  will  not  this  spirit  work  itself 
into  the  very  soul  fibre  of  the  young?  When  fathers  and  mothers  by 
their  spirit  of  consecration  are  impressing  their  children  that  there  is 
one  cause  to  which  they  live  supremely,  to  which  all  power  and  influence 
and  possession  is  held  joyously  subordinate,  this  spirit  too  will  prove  in- 
fectious. If  the  young  get  the  impression,  not  so  much  from  the  preach- 
er's talk  as  from  the  layman's  life,  that  there  is  but  one  great  cause 
for  life's  service,  they  will  come  to  feel  that  the  question  remaining  for 
their  solution  is,  where  can  I  in  this  cause  of  Christianizing  the  worlds 
make  the  best  investment  of  my  life?  Under  such  conditions,  in  direct 
evangelical  work  will  be  invested  the  due  proportion  of  the  best  young 
life.  The  atmosphere  propitious  to  this  issue  must  be  created  by  the  lives 
of  our  Christian  laymen.  It  cannot  in  any  large  degree  be  created  di- 
rectly by  ministers  and  missionaries. 

2.  *  What  will  it  mean  in  the  supply  of  money  for  the  service  of 
Christianizing  the  world?  The  furnishing  of  the  needful  money  seems  a 
chief  animating  thought  in  the  great  uprising  of  Christian  laymen  in 
these  recent  days.  This  need  is  immeasurable.  The  workers  in  the  field 
at  this  moment  and  almost  everywhere  are  painfully  limited  in  their  op- 
portunity of  service  by  the  lack  of  means  to  extend  their  operations. 
There  are  still  greater  fields  that  languish  for  workers  because  there  is 
no  money  in  our  mission  treasuries  to  send  and  support  workers.  To 
lead  young  people  out  into  this  service  and  adequately  to  equip  them  for 
it,  money  is  greatly  needed  and  in  some  quarters  of  our  Baptist  world 
too,  for  the  proper  equipment  and  support  of  Christian  colleges.    To  save 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  297 

our  j'ouns:  peoj^le  to  the  cause  of  Christianizing  the  world  we  must  see 
that  they  are  educated  in  an  atmosphere  that  is  frankly,  positively,  and 
without  any  restraint  Christian  in  its  spirit  and  virile  tendency.  I  say 
this  in  the  face  of  a  great  tide  of  thought  sweeping  in  on  the  life  of  our 
new  world  toAvards  the  secularization  of  institutions  of  higher  education, 
and  directly  or  indirectly  weakening  and  driving  to  the  wall  our  Christian 
institutions  of  learning.  If  the  establishing  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
on  the  earth  through  missionary  agency  is  to  be  realized,  we  must  have 
our  Christian  institutions  of  learning,  and  we  must  have  them  from  the 
point  of  view  of  mental  training  equal  to  the  best.  For  this  large  in- 
vestments of  money  will  have  to  be  made  by  Christian  laymen. 

Has  the  Church  of  Christ  yet  mastered  the  Christian  ethics  of  wealth? 
The  largest  sum  of  the  world 's  wealth  to-day  is  found  with  the  Christian 
nations.  It  is  claimed  also  that  more  than  a  proportionate  amount  is 
under  the  control  of  Christian  laymen  in  these  Christian  lands.  In  the 
daj's  of  my  boyhood  in  my  own  country  and  denomination  a  millionaire 
was  a  conspicuous  curiosity.  I  do  not  know  so  much  about  the  older 
Eastern  world  in  this  regard,  but  in  this  newer  Western  world  Christian 
millionaires  have  been  multiplying  with  great  rapidity.  Is  there  a  great 
Christian  "ought"  attaching  itself  to  the  rapid  increase  of  wealth  in 
the  hands  of  Christian  men  and  women  ?  Is  there  an  inseparable  obliga- 
tion between  growing  wealth  and  the  Christianizing  of  the  world?  Is 
the  wealth,  great  or  small,  in  the  hands  of  our  Christian  laymen  abso- 
lutely their  own  to  do  with  as  they  choose?  Leaving  God  out  of  the 
count,  does  the  acquisition  of  wealth  impose  ethical  obligation  to  serve 
humanity?  We  owe  our  wealth  in  large  measure  to  the  world.  But  for 
the  world  we  would  not  have  it — and  the  things  we  call  our  wealth  would 
possess  no  such  significance.  Some  of  the  holders  of  wealth  are  coming 
to  recognize  this  fact,  and  the  ethical  obligation  wrapped  up  in  it.  But 
when  we  take  God  in  Christ  into  the  count  the  ethical  obligation  to  the 
world  for  His  sake,  once  seen,  should  be  irresistible. 

Does  the  principle  of  the  Christian  obligation  that  we  think  applies  to 
the  use  of  the  Christian  missionary's  personal  powers  apply  equally  to 
the  Christian  layman's  wealth?  If  so,  the  fact  ought  to  be  made  plain. 
Is  it  not  time  the  dual  standard  of  life  and  service  for  Christians  was 
abolished  ? 

3.  What  will  it  mean  in  the  influence  of  Christian  laj-men  directly 
for  the  Christianization  of  the  world? 

By  the  standard  and  motive  of  service  established  it  will  stimu- 
late all  life  it  touches.  The  vision  of  life  animated  by  unselfish  love  that 
recognizes  no  geographical  bounds  or  artificial  distinctions — that  goes  out 
to  mankind  in  self-denying  service,  cannot  fail  to  leaven  the  lite  of  its 
environment.  When  it  came  to  be  known,  what  w^as  the  effect  in  this  re- 
spect of  the  matchless  life  of  Jesus?  Wliat  effect  will  these  same  quali- 
ties, becoming  incarnate  in  the  lives  of  the  Christian  laymen  of  to-day 
have  on  the  life  of  the  world  in  its  industrial  relations,  on  the  marts  of 
commerce — in  the  whole  great  world-field  of  the  acti\-ities  of  Christian 
laymen?  This  is  the  sort  of  leaven  that  will  work  out  and  out  and  out 
until  the  whole  is  divinely  leavened.  The  Christianizing  of  the  world  is 
calling  for  money  from  Christian  laymen,  but  is  it  not  calling  even  more 
for  the  manifest  Spirit  of  Christ  as  a  vital  force  touching  the  world's 
life  with  its  divinely  transforming  power? 

There  was  a  place  still  in  the  thought  of  Paul  for  the  redemptive  force 


298  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

of  the  self-denying  service  and  sacrifice  of  love.  ''I  fill  up  that  which 
is  behind  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  for  His  body's  sake,  which  is  the 
church."  In  the  great  redeeming  force  that  is  to  bring  the  world  back 
to  God  is  there  necessity  still  for  filling  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ?  Is  there  obligation  still  upon  laymen,  ministers 
and  missionaries  alike,  to  make  their  contribution  to  this  self-sacrificing 
redemptive  love  that  will  bring  the  world  back  to  God? 

What  will  settle  the  vexed  industrial  problems  of  our  day"?  What 
will  bring  to  an  end  the  selfish  cruel  war  of  business  life?  What  will  ul- 
timately bring  in  the  era  of  international  peace,  and  terminate  the 
shocking  waste  of  the  world's  resources  on  national  armaments  and  the 
horrible  savagery  of  war's  bloody  barbarities?  Is  there  anything  less 
than  the  spirit  of  Christ  permeating  social,  business,  industrial,  national 
and  international  life?  If  not  in  the  lives  of  Christian  laymen,  where  is 
this  spirit  to  find  its  expression  and  work  out  its  redemptive  issues? 

Can  the  church  be  the  force  under  God  for  the  Christianizing  of  the 
world  unless  the  spirit  of  consecration  to  this  high  service  masters  and 
impels  missionary,  minister  and  layman  alike?  Is  there  not  a  verj'  real 
sense  in  which,  for  the  extension  of  the  reign  of  God  on  the  earth,  even 
more  depends  on  the  life  of  the  people  than  on  the  preaching  of  the  pul- 
pit? The  mightiest  of  all  Christian  apologetics  is  the  spirit  of  Christ's 
redemptive  love  in  the  every-day  life  of  those  bearing  His  name.  This, 
under  God,  will  make  the  gospel  a  triumphant  Christianizing  force  in 
the  world. 

What  a  coming  of  Christ  that  will  be  when  the  spirit  of  the  man  of 
Nazareth  of  nineteen  hundred  years  ago  takes  possession  of  the  whole 
church  bearing  His  name !  That  will  be  a  coming  that  will  fill  the  world 
with  a  glory  that  will  be  reflected  in  the  heavens. 

Is  this  too  high  an  ideal  for  the  Baptist  World  Alliance?  Is  it  too 
high  an  ideal  for  the  whole  Christian  Church?  Is  it  too  high  an 
ideal  to  command  the  ambition  of  Christian  laymen? 

(Applause.) 

Chairman  :  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  call  upon  President  George 
B.  Cutten,  of  Canada,  to  address  us  upon  "Training  the  Young  in  Misr 
sionary  Endeavor."     (Applause.) 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  YOUNG  IN  MISSIONARY  ENDEAVOR. 
By  Pres.  GEO.  B.  CUTTEN,  Acadia  College,  N.  S. 

The  Layman's  Missionary  Movement  with  all  its  splendid  results  is  but 
a  flash  in  the  pan  unless  there  are  some  steps  taken  toward  permanency. 
What  form  permanency  in  missionary  work  should  take  must  be  a  mat- 
ter of  conjecture  in  detail,  but  I  think  there  will  be  no  doubt  concerning 
the  statement  that  it  must  begin  with  the  young  rather  than  with  the 
middle-aged  or  old.  No  steps,  however,  can  be  correctly  taken  unless  we 
recognize  the  proper  sphere  of  missions  in  Christianity. 

In  the  past  the  work  of  missions  has  been  looked  upon  as  a  work  of 
supererogation — a  fringe  or  adornment.  It  was  not  considered  necessary 
for  salvation  either  on  the  part  of  the  individual  or  of  the  church  as  a 
whole.     Notwithstanding  the   specific  commands  and  example   of  Jesus 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  299 

Christ,  missions  have  not  been  taken  seriously  by  the  majority  of  His 
followers. 

In  considering  the  philosophy  of  missions  we  ftust  take  into  account 
the  reflex  value.  Christian  work  may  be  intensive  or  extensive.  The 
intensity  may  reach  a  high  degree  for  a  short  time,  but  unless  it  is  com- 
bined with  extensive  work  Ave  cannot  hope  for  continuous  life.  This  is 
true  in  regard  to  national  life,  commercial  life,  educational  life,  indi- 
vidual life,  and  is  none  the  less  true  regarding  the  spiritual  part  of  in- 
dividual existence  than  it  is  in  the  physical  and  mental.  We  grow  by 
giving  out.  We  get  by  losing.  It  is  true  of  Christianity  as  a  whole 
that  it  can  only  save  its  life  by  losing  it. 

Admit  if  you  will  that  this  is  selfish  rather  than  altruistic;  admit  if 
you  will  that  it  is  a  lower  plane  of  Christian  ideals;  admit  that  we 
should  give  to  others  because  we  love  them  rather  than  give  to  others  be- 
cause we  love  ourselves;  admit  the  worst  that  can  be  said  about  it,  we 
still  have  the  question  of  Jesus  to  which  men  are  contiaually  endeavor- 
ing to  give  an  answer:  "What  will  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  life,  or  what  will  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his 
life?"  When  we  admit  the  implied  answer  to  the  question  we  shall  find 
that  references  to  missions  will  not  have  to  be  prefaced  by  an  apology, 
and  when  we  find  that  missions  are  a  vital  and  a  necessary  part  of  in- 
dividual Christianity  instead  of  an  unnecessary  adornment,  the  work 
will  take  on  a  new  character  and  men  will  understand  something  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  matter. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  subject  which  I  have  before  me  to-day  my  main 
thought  is  to  impress  the  necessity  of  missionary  training  of  the  young. 
When  a  church  believes  this,  it  will  not  take  long  to  find  the  way.  Wlien 
we  really  believe  that  missions  vitally  concern  us  in  our  individual 
Christian  lives  just  as  much  as  any  other  doctrine  which  we  have  form- 
erly held  as  necessary  and  vital,  then  the  manner  and  method  will  soon  be 
solved.  When  the  mass  of  the  people  have  decided  fully  and  freely  that 
they  have  had  enough  of  the  liquor  business  and  want  a  sober  country; 
when  the  voters  go  to  the  polls  determined  to  eliminate  dishonest  legis- 
lators and  have  representatives  who  really  represent  them;  when  the 
Church  of  Christ  becomes  convinced  that  the  time  has  come  to  stop 
dabbling  in  missions  and  to  start  a  missionary  business,  do  not  worry 
about  methods,  just  step  out  of  the  way  of  the  express,  for  the  throttle 
will  be  wide  open  and  the  track  clear.  Once  realizing  our  need  we  will 
find  the  way. 

Were  it  a  matter  of  expediency  rather  than  of  necessity  it  would  pay 
to  deal  with  the  young  because  they  are  most  easily  interested  in  mis- 
sions. The  cause  of  the  lack  of  interest  in  this  subject  among  our 
church-members,  and  of  the  proverbial  uninteresting  missionary  meeting 
must  be  sought  not  in  the  character  of  the  subject,  but  in  the  tastes  of 
church-members,  and  of  the  proverbial  uninteresting  missionary  meeting 
need  of  such  an  organization  of  adults  as  the  Layman 's  Missionary 
Movement  is  a  severe  criticism  of  the  work  of  the  church  in  the  early 
years  of  this  generation. 

Even  from  the  standpoint  of  economics,  the  training  of  the  young 
rather  than  of  adults  is  the  ideal.  No  great  organization  of  traveling 
enthusiasts,  no  artificial  interest  excited  by  banquet  and  oratory,  no  tran- 
sient enthusiasm  followed  by  sub-normal  attention  will  be  seen,  but  the 
keen,  curious,  natural  interest  of  the  child  whicli  can  scarcely  be  separ- 


300  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIA'NCE. 

ated  from  missions  when  there  is  a  possibility  of  their  coming  together. 

Please  note,  in  passing,  that  I  am  not  criticising  in  the  least  the  Lay- 
man's Missionary  Mo^ftment, — far  from  it — nothing  could  be  more  mag- 
nificent, nor  better  adapted  to  the  present  conditions ;  it  is  the  conditions 
I  am  criticising — the  conditions  which  make  it  necessary.  It  is  because 
the  young  have  not  been  trained,  because  this  great  subject  has  not  been 
wrought  into  the  fiber  of  their  being,  because  many  of  the  best  years  of 
their  lives  have  been  untouched  by  missionary  interest  and  endeavor  that 
such  movements  are  necessary  and  beneficial. 

Shall  it  be  our  plan,  then,  to  start  a  new  movement  for  the  young? 
Not  if  by  movement  we  mean  an  organization  for  doing  transient  work. 
It  must  be  some  scheme  for  training  the  young  in  missions  which  will  be 
as  permanent  as  the  church,  i.  e.,  an  integral  part  of  the  church.  In  a 
word,  the  Church-School,  not  as  it  now  is  but  as  it  should  be,  is  the  solu- 
tion of  this  great  problem. 

In  coming  to  this  conclusion  we  are  touching  the  wider  problem  of  re- 
ligious education,  and  in  connection  with  our  subject  two  things  must  be 
said,  although  they  are  already  well  known.  The  first  is  that  in  order  to 
accomplish  the  proper  training  of  the  young  in  missions  as  in  other  forms 
of  Christian  activity  we  must  have  more  time  for  teaching  than  thirty 
minutes  per  week.  Where  we  are  to  get  more  time  in  our  busy  lives  is 
a  serious  problem.  Shall  we  have  longer  or  more  sessions  on  the  now 
over-crowded  Sunday?  Shall  we  take  some  time  from  the  public  school 
sessions  which  are  now  too  short  to  accommodate  the  ever-increasing  cur- 
riculum ?  In  answer  to  these  questions  let  me  say  again,  when  we  decide 
that  in  order  to  save  both  the  national  and  religious  life  of  a  people  it  is 
necessary  to  devote  more  time  to  religious  education,  we  will  find  the 
time. 

The  second  requisite  for  proper  training  of  the  young  in  our  church 
schools  is  proper  instruction.  We  are  now  in  the  process  of  changes 
and  in  the  period  of  experimentation  regarding  our  church  school  cur- 
riculum and  text-books.  When  we  get  the  results  of  the  combined  wis- 
dom of  our  educators,  and  of  the  best  efforts  in  preparation  of  courses 
and  books  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  decide  concerning  our  missionary 
study.  Some  things  are  prophetically  sure,  however;  the  courses  will  not 
contain  the  repetitions,  characteristic  of  our  Sunday-school  lessons  of  the 
past,  but  will  cover  a  wider  range  of  study;  the  courses  will  not  only  be 
different  but  progressive;  and  such  subjects  as  missions,  which  we  shall 
more  and  more  consider  vital  to  church  life,  will  demand  increased  at- 
tention and  require  more  time.  In  our  new  church  schools,  missions  will 
be  taken  for  granted  instead  of  coylj^  and  apologetically  insinuating 
themselves,  and  that  will  be  half  the  battle  won. 

In  connection  with  the  courses  and  text-books  the  question  is  some- 
times asked  if  a  special  missionary  periodical  and  other  forms  of  litera- 
ture would  not  be  of  value.  In  the  answer  to  this,  I  should  say  that  it 
probably  would  be  of  some  supplementary  value,  but  the  real  work  must 
be  done  in  the  school  and  have  as  its  foundation  the  regular  text-book. 
The  special  periodical  would  be  of  value  as  a  special  publication  dealing 
with  botany,  arithmetic,  or  English  literature  would  be  of  value  to  the 
public  school  pupil — it  would  not  take  the  place  of  the  regular  work. 
The  real  work  must  have  a  permanent  and  solid  foundation  in  regular 
study. 

In  teaching  missions  there  is  one  valuable  feature  which  must  not  es- 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  301 

cape  us.  It  is  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  find  a  subject  so  attractive 
to  and  so  easily  taught  through  the  eye  as  this  one.  To  have  the  condi- 
tions pictured  gains  the  attention  and  imparts  the  lesson.  For  this  rea- 
son supplementary  work  can  most  profitably  be  carried  on  through  the 
use  of  the  stereopticon  and  its  little  neighbor  the  stereoscope.  Science 
is  giving  us  every  advantage  to-day.  The  missionary  moving  picture  is 
far  from  unknown  and  is  most  interesting  and  instructive.  While  this 
may  be  for  combinations  of  schools,  the  stereopticon  is  for  every  school, 
and  the  stereoscope  for  every  class.  With  the  marvelous  reflecting  stere- 
opticon where  not  simply  translucent  slides  may  be  used,  but  where 
opaque  pictures,  such  as  picture  post  cards  may  be  reflected,  the  scope  is 
greatly  enhanced  and  the  missionary  material  is  inexhaustible.  Tiie 
stereopticon  interests  and  teaches  young  and  old. 

It  is  a  pedagogical  principle  that  we  can  have  no  lasting  impressions 
without  expression,  and  this  seems  to  be  most  true  in  missionary  teach- 
ing. Some  definite  missionary  work  should  be  connected  with  every 
course  given,  and  indeed  with  every  class  in  the  school.  For  the  Be- 
ginners the  missionary  boxes  and  summer  tree,  for  the  Primary  some  gifts 
constructed  by  the  pupils  as  well  as  money  gifts,  for  the  Juniors  giving 
for  some  definite  objects  more  or  less  closely  connected  with  Junior  work 
on  mission  fields,  for  Intermediates  still  giving  for  definite  objects  but 
less  and  less  so,  and  for  Senioi-s  undesignated  gifts  for  the  general  work. 
The  general  rule  should  be,  the  giving  for  definite  objects  by  young 
children  and  undesignated  gifts  by  the  older  persons. 

Two  further  equally  obvious  and  well-known  factors  must  enter  in  to 
make  this,  as  all  other  departments  of  the  Sunday-school,  a  success.  We 
must  have  graded  classes  and  trained  teachers.  Graded  classes  will  fol- 
low naturally  or  even  precede  graded  lessons,  so  little  more  need  be  said 
on  this  subject,  but  the  proper  training  of  teachers  is  a  serious  problem 
in  all  forms  of  religious  education.  The  church,  however,  must  under- 
take it.  Specialists  in  certain  branches  as  in  the  public  school  system, 
and  each  child  and  youth  taking  missionary  study  for  perhaps  a  year  at 
a  time  would  be  the  ideal. 

Occasional  missionary  lessons  have  two  disadvantages:  they  interrupt 
the  regular  lessons  and  are  inten-upted  in  turn  by  them.  It  is  not  best 
for  either.  No  connected  missionary  instruction  can  be  given  in  this  way. 
The  same  objection  is  open  to  the  missionary  lesson  attached  to  the  end 
of  the  regular  lesson.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  missionary  application  of  the 
regular  lesson  when  it  really  belongs  there,  but  the  arbitrary  intrusion  of 
missions  during  the  last  five  minutes  of  every  lesson  period  \>y  some 
other  than  the  regular  teacher,  or  by  the  regular  teacher  himself.  The 
tendency  of  this  form  of  missionary  instruction  is  to  cause  the  pupil  to 
be  alienated  from  missions  rather  than  to  be  attracted  to  them. 

In  the  regular  teachers'  training  courses,  Avhich  every  modern  school 
should  have,  missionary  problems,  methods,  and  results  must  form  a  part 
of  the  curriculum,  so  that  every  teacher  may  become  familiar  with  mis- 
sions as  with  every  other  subject  studied.  It  can  hardly  be  expected, 
however,  that  the  church  school  should  go  so  far  in  its  educational  work 
as  to  attempt  to  train  workers  for  the  home  and  foreign  fields.  This 
must  be  left  to  the  theological  seminaries  and  the  missionary  training 
schools.  The  most  that  can  be  expected  of  the  schools  along  this  line  is 
to  give  a  basic  knowledge  and  an  inspiration  to  have  missions  as  a  prac- 
tical part  of  the  Christian  life  whether  the  individual  stays  at  home  or 


302  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

works  abroad.     If  the  teacher  is  inculcated  with  this,  the  results  of  the 
teaching  will  show  similar  fruit. 

It  is  well  to  notice  that  the  World's  Sunday  School  Association,  the 
International  Sunday  School  Association,  as  well  as  State  and  Provincial 
Sunday  School  Associations  are  emphasizing  missions  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  and  that  the  Sunday  School  Lesson  Systems  are  giving  more  at- 
tention to  it.  There  is  still  a  tendency,  however,  to  relegate  it  to  sup- 
plementary lessons  and  extra  study  rather  than  to  dignify  the  subject 
by  assigning  it  to  a  regular  lesson  course. 

Some  have  thought  that  the  Young  People's  Societies  were  the  agen- 
cies for  which  we  have  been  waiting,  but  I  doubt  if  this  is  so.  It  is 
gratifying  to  know  that  the  Baptist  Young  People 's  Union  led  the  way  in 
America  in  emphasizing  missionary  education  among  its  members  and  in 
its  meetings.  If  the  Young  People's  Societies  do  not  take  up  educa- 
tional work  there  is  little  reason  for  their  existence.  Should  we  not,  then, 
delegate  the  work  of  missionary  education  to  them?  As  much  as  any 
other  form  of  religious  education,  but  not  entirely  to  them  for  two  rea- 
sons. In  the  first  place,  the  work  of  missionary  instruction  must  not  be 
left  until  the  late  adolescent  years,  and  in  the  second,  it  must  not  be  dele- 
gated to  any  supplementary  society  but  must  be  vitally  connected  with 
the  principal  work  of  the  church,  to  signify  its  importance. 

^If  the  young  are  to  be  trained  in  Missionary  Endeavor  it  seems  as 
though  the  church  school  should  be  the  agent  to  accomplish  this  task. 
Whether  the  school  shall  be  confined  to  instruction  upon  Sunday  or  as- 
signed some  work  upon  other  days  is  a  matter  to  be  settled  later,  but  I 
opine  that  it  cannot  do  all  its  work  on  Sunday,  and  surely  not  if  the 
sessions  are  no  longer  than  at  present.  Our  main  need  now,  however,  is 
to  awaken  individuals,  churches,  and  denominations  to  the  vital  need  of 
missionary  endeavor  for  the  sake  of  salvation  for  ourselves  and  others. 
The  need  recognized,  the  way  will  be  found. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  The  Southern  Baptist  Convention  has  sent  to  us  a  com- 
munication which  President  Mullins  will  now  read  to  us. 

Dr.  E.  Y.  Mullins:  A  vote  was  passed  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  and  a  committee  was  appointed  in  ac- 
cordance with  it.  I  was  made  chairman  of  that  committee  and  have  the 
honor  of  presenting  to  the  Alliance  this  morning  the  communication 
from  that  committee. 

COMMUNICATION  FROM  THE  SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION  TO  THE  BAPTIST 

WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

To  THE  Baptist  World  Alliance  : 

Dear  Brethren  :  At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention at  Jacksonville,  Florida,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted: 

Inasmuch  as  our  Master  said:  "Go  ye  and  teach  all  nations,  baptiz- 
ing them  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you," 
we,  the  messengers  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  earnestly  desir- 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  I'ROVIJEDINO^.  303 

ing  that  oiu-  people  obey  lully  and  effectively  this  great  command,  hereby 

Resolved,  1.  That  we  view  with  great  joy  tlie  enthusiasm  created  and 
the  good  already  accomplished  by  the  formation  of  the  Baptist  "Worfd 
Alliance. 

2.  That  this  Convention  ajipoint  a  special  committee  of  five  to  con- 
sider the  advisability  of  laying  before  the  Alliance,  at  its  session  to  be 
held  in  Philadelphia  next  month,  some  plan  looking  to  the  continual 
active  co-operation  of  all  Baptist  Mission  Boards  to  the  end  that  the 
whole  world  may  be  systematically  and  thoroughly  evangelized  by  Bap- 
tists as  speedily  as  possible. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  convey  the  above  action  to  the  Baptist 
"World  Alliance.  The  committee  in  accordance  with  the  intent  of  the 
resolutions  begs  to  suggest  to  the  Alliance  the  importance  and  timeli- 
ness of  the  matter  to  Avhich  attention  is  called  in  the  action  of  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Convention.  The  growth  of  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  work 
in  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  especially  the  Baptist  movement  in 
Europe  suggests  the  advisability  of  some  such  action  as  will  forestall 
needless  duplication  of  Baptist  missionary  agencies  and  entex-prises  on 
the  foreign  field,  and  which  will  conduce  to  more  effective  co-operation 
of  Baptists  in  their  foreign  mission  work  wherever  and  whenever  this  is 
possible,  and  which  may  lead  to  an  apportionment  of  the  missionary 
areas  as  yet  unoccupied  in  such  manner  as  will  lead  to  the  speedy  evan- 
gelization of  the  world. 

What  measure  or  measures  should  be  adopted  to  accomplish  the  above 
results  we  do  not  undertake  definitely  to  suggest.  One  method  would  be 
the  appointment  of  a  standing  committee  whose  duty  it  would  be  to  com- 
municate with  the  various  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  boards  on  the  sub- 
ject from  time  to  time,  of  course  assuming  that  such  committee  will 
have  made  careful  study  of  the  field  and  have  information  to  communi- 
cate worthy  of  the  consideration  of  the  boards.  It  seems  eminently  de- 
sirable that  our  growing  sense  of  Baptist  unity  as  embodied  and  fos- 
tered and  expressed  in  the  World  Alliance  should  have  opportunity  for 
practical  realization  in  Baptist  comity  and  economy  and  co-operative 
efficiency  in  the  great  task  of  world  evangelization. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

E.  Y.    MULLINS. 

F.  M.     McCO^TNELL. 

C.  W.  Daniel. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  is  much  that  might  be  said  upon  this  resolution; 
of  course  I  will  not  take  the  time  of  the  Alliance,  assuming  that  the 
purport  embodied  in  it  is  sufficiently  self-evident  to  require  no  remarks. 
I  suppose  if  the  Alliance  should  see  fit  to  appoint  a  committee  to  carry 
out  the  suggestion  embodied  in  this  report,  it  would  meet  the  wishes  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention. 

Chairman  :  Dr.  Prestridge  is  going  to  make  a  resolution  in  regard  to 
that  question  which  has  just  been  raised  in  this  communication.     There 


304  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

is  an  indication  on  the  general  program  that  there  should  be  discussion 
of  the  matters  brought  up.  Up  to  the  present  there  has  been  no  discus- 
sion, but  as  soon  as  this  matter  is  disposed  of  the  meeting  will  be' 
thrown  open  for  discussion  of  the  matters  brought  before  us  this  morn- 
ing. We  shall  in  the  first  period  confine  speakers  to  five  minutes,  but 
I  hope  some  one  will  be  ready  to  lead  away  in  the  discussion  and  will 
send  me  up  a  card  while  Dr.  Prestridge  is  speaking. 

Dr.  Prestridge  :  I  do  not  like  to  make  the  motion.  I  believe  I  will  not, 
because  I  am  on  that  committee,  but  this  is  my  suggestion.  That  is  a 
committee  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  that  was  born  at  an  hour 
of  great  enthusiasm  and  spiritual  elevation.  The  motion  was  sug- 
gested by  Dr.  F.  M.  McConnell,  the  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Texas 
Baptist  Convention  In  short,  it  is  this :  We  have  discovered  a  great 
missionary  territory  on  the  Continent,  a  glorious  field  to  work  in,  to 
occupy,  to  conquer  for  our  Lord  and  Christ,  Russia,  Moravia,  and  all  the 
rest,  and  none  of  our  Boards  have  gone  into  that  territory.  Now,  we  do 
not  want  any  one  of  them  to  take  all  that  territory  at  once,  and  put  in 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  They  are  not  ready  for  it.  We  wish  this 
committee  to  confer  with  the  Boards  through  the  Alliance  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  our  Boards  to  divide  up  that  territory,  orderly,  prayer- 
fully, with  determination  to  occupy  it  and  conquer  it  for  our  Lord  and 
Christ.    That  is  what  it  means. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  it  would  be  a  very  good  idea  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee. I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  the  chairman  on  that  committee 
appointed.  Dr.  McConnell  and  President  Mullins  I  would  like  to  see  on 
the  committee,  and  put  on  an  equal  number  from  the  North.  Let  it  be 
a  permanent  committee  to  confer  with  our  foreign  Board  at  Richmond 
and  New  York  and  elsewhere,  and  say  what  part  of  the  territory  on  the 
Continent  will  you  occupy  for  Christ.  There  is  one  greedy  member  of 
that  committee  down  there  that  wanted  at  once  to  pre-empt  part  of  the 
territory,  and  he  went  far  enough  to  publish  what  he  wanted  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Convention  to  take  over,  because  he  had  been  working  with 
it,  and  I  am  betraying  no  secrets  when  I  say  the  movement  has  gone  a 
good  way  toward  one  part  of  that  territory.  They  are  not  trying  to  an- 
ticipate any  action  of  this  committee  but  we  are  hungry  in  the  South  to 
take  up  some  work  on  the  Continent.  Some  of  us  have  been  fighting  for 
it  for  six  or  seven  years.  There  is  a  little  piece  we  would  like  and  we 
have  pretty  nearly  got  the  money  to  take  it  right  away.  But  that  will 
be  referred  to  the  committee.  I  would  be  glad  if  somebody  would  make 
a  motion,  or  I  could  make  a  motion  leaving  myself  ofP,  that  a  permanent 
committee  be  appointed  representing  the  Southern  and  Northern  Bap- 
tist Conventions  in  about  equal  number  to  confer  with  the  Boards. 

A  Delegate:  Why  not  include  the  British  Mission  Board? 

Dr.  Prestridge:  Of  course.  America  is  not  greedy,  we  don't  want  it 
all.     This  is  not  a  secret;  I  said  down  there  to  Dr.  Vining  and  the  rest 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  305 

of  them,  ''We  want  to  work  around  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  and  let  the 
Britishers  take  Russia."  He  said,  ''The  whole  of  Russia."  I  said,  "We 
will  divide  it  up  and  let  the  North  take  Hungary."  We  can  divide  it 
up  some  way  or  other.    Put  on  the  Britishers  too. 

Dr.  Clifford  :  I  presume  the  object  of  this  committee  is  simply  to  be 
the  conveying  of  information,  not  organization.  There  are  three  or  four 
Boards  that  will  be  at  sea,  and  what  is  wanted  is  that  there  should  be  a 
committee  that  will  be  possessed  of  full  knowledge  as  to  the  action  of 
each  particular  part  of  our  foreign  mission  work,  and  that  it  should  be 
advised  by  a  central  committee  so  that  it  might  initiate  consultation  and 
prevent  anything  of  the  shape  of  two  bodies  getting  together  to  work  in 
the  same  iield,  and  also  to  secure  that  every  part  of  the  field  should  be 
covered,  and  our  real  name,  "Baptist  World  Alliance"  should  receive  its 
incarnation  and  embodiment  in  such  a  committee.  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  second,  support,  move  or  anything  else  to  get  a  committee  like  that. 

Dr.  Mullins:  Dr.  Clifford  has  stated  precisely  the  thought  in  the 
minds  of  this  committee.  It  should  be  representative  of  every  country 
in  the  Alliance. 

A  Delegate:  I  rise  to  ask  why  division?  Why  not  appoint  a  com- 
mittee on  the  line  of  conservation  and  co-operation  ? 

A  Delegate:  May  I  ask  if  this  committee  would  include  Central  and 
South  America?  We  have  forty-five  millions  of  people  right  at  our  doors 
south  of  us  and  I  would  like  to  know  if  this  would  include  those  as  well. 

Dr.  Mullins:  So  far  as  our  committee  understands  the  purport  of  it. 
Of  course  the  Alliance  would  determine  what  the  duties  of  its  committee 
would  be;  our  committee  has  nothing  to  say  about  that.  Our  thought 
w^as  that  this  standing  central  committee  of  the  World  Alliance,  repre- 
senting all  the  nations  of  our  Baptist  family  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
the  committee  having  representatives  from  all  of  these  sections  of  Bap- 
tist work,  should  take  into  consideration  and  study  faithfully  the  whole 
world  with  a  view  to  conservation  and  co-operation  and  efficiency  and 
everything  else  that  is  good  in  Baptist  missions. 

A  Delegate:  I  would  like  to  ask  why  not  include  Africa  in  that  also? 
I  think  the  Alliance  has  some  obligations  to  Africa  as  well  as  to  Eu- 
rope. I  am  glad  Dr.  Mullins  in  his  last  remarks  brought  in  the  whole 
w-orld.  I  want  him  to  emphasize  Africa,  and  we  want  representatives 
from  the  National  Baptist  Convention  on  that  committee.  We  want  all 
divisions  of  the  Baptist  family  on  that  committee. 

Chairman:  I  think  that  is  clearly  understood,  that  the  committee  is  to 
take  cognizance  of  all  parts  of  the  world.  Now  the  resolution  is  that  this 
committee  should  be  formed. 

Puts  motion  to  the  vote  and  it  is  carried. 


306  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Chairman  :  Now,  I  think  I  should  suggest  that  the  matter  be  ref  en-ed 
to  the  Executive  Committee  to  appoint  the  committee.  This  is  a  matter 
of  course  in  which  we  should  not  have  random  nomination,  but  the 
selection  should  be  with  the  greatest  possible  care.  I  beg  to  move  from 
the  chair  that  it  be  remitted  to  the  Executive  Committee  to  appoint  this 
committee. 

The  motion  was  seconded  and  carried. 

A  Delegate:  We  have  adopted  a  very  important  resolution  without 
having  the  resolution  read.  I  think  it  is  exceedingly  important  in  a  mat- 
ter that  covers  the  missionary  work  of  our  denomination  in  the  whole 
world  that  we  should  go  home  with  a  clear  understanding  of  the  policy 
adopted.  I  therefore  ask  that  the  mover  of  the  resolution  prepare  a 
written  resolution  and  read  it  to  us.  To  me  it  seems  fraught  with  great 
consequences,  and  the  delegates  here  gathered  ought  to  know  and  know 
precisely  just  what  has  been  done,  that  we  may  go  to  our  churches  and 
communicate  with  them  and  bring  the  whole  World  Alliance  into  line 
with  the  new  policy. 

Chairman  :  I  think  the  answer  to  our  friend  is  that  the  communication 
which  has  been  read  to  the  Alliance  by  President  Mullins  will  be  printed 
in  the  transactions  of  the  Alliance  and  will  be  before  the  whole  of  the 
churches  of  the  Alliance. 

The  chairman  then  threw  the  meeting  open  for  discussion  of  the 
topics  introduced  in  the  addresses  of  the  morning.  There  being  no  re- 
sjDonse  the  session  adjourned  after  singing  the  Doxology  and  the  benedic- 
tion by  Dr.  Clifford. 

Friday  Afternoon,  June  23,  1911. 
On  Friday  afternoon  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  the  Alliance  exer- 
cises took  place.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Women's  General  Committee 
a  reception  was  given  to  the  delegates.  By  the  courtesy  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  it  was  held  at  the  Botanical  Gardens  of  that  institu- 
tion. A  large  company  of  young  ladies  from  the  churches  of  Philadel- 
phia and  vicinity  represented  the  march  of  the  nations  and  afterward 
served  the  large  company  with  ice  cream  and  cake.  More  than  four 
thousand  men  and  women  were  in  attendance  and  the  beautiful  after- 
noon, the  charming  surroundings,  and  the  social  amenities  made  an 
occasion  long  to  be  remembered. — [Editor.] 

TENTH  SESSION. 

Friday  Evening,  June  23,  1911. 
Session  opened   at  7.45  with   devotional  exercises  led  by  Rev.  B.   L. 
Whitman,  D.  D.,  of  Washington. 

Hymn,  ' '  All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus '  Name. ' ' 

Beading  of  Scripture  and  prayer  by  Dr.  Whitman. 

The  chairman  of  the  evening  was  E.  W.  Stephens,  of  Missouri. 


Friday,  June  23.J  RECORD  OF  rUOCEEDiyaH.  307 

Chairman  :  I  have  pleasure  in  introtlucing-  Dr.  Simoleit  who  is  to  pre- 
sent to  you  the  invitation  of  Berlin  for  the  next  Alliance  to  meet  there 
in  1916.' 

Dr.  Simolkit:  Mr.  President  and  dear  brethren:  It  is  my  privilege 
in  the  name  of  the  committee  of  the  German  Baptist  Union  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Baptist  churches  of  Berlin  to  invite  the  Baptist  World  Al- 
liance to  hold  its  third  convention  in  1916  in  Berlin,  Germany.  Ger- 
many, the  country  of  the  Reformation,  Berlin  the  beautiful  city  of  the 
Kaiser,  and  perhaps,  next  to  Washington  the  finest  city  in  the  world. 
The  Baptist  churches  in  Berlin  would  consider  it  a  great  honor  if  you 
would  accept  this  hearty  invitation.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Prestridge  :  The  Executive  Committee  has  endorsed  this  matter 
and  I  move  that  we  endorse  the  nomination  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  this  body  and  meet  in  Berlin. 

Motion  Avas  seconded  and  carried. 

Chairman  :  The  invitation  is  accepted  and  the  Alliance  will  meet  in 
Berlin  in  1916.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Prestridge  announces  that  it  is  desirable  that  the  European  dele- 
gates should  be  taken  to  Washington  to  see  the  President,  which  would 
cost  about  four  hundred  or  five  hundred  dollars  and  for  which  no  funds 
are  on  hand.  On  the  suggestion  of  the  chairman  a  collection  was  taken 
towards  this  object.    The  collection  amounted  to  $262.65. 

Chairman  :  The  chair  observes  from  the  printed  program  that  one  of 
the  special  privileges  of  the  chairman  of  this  meeting  is  the  opportunity 
to  speak  ten  minutes,  and  as  the  chairman  is  an  American  he  will  fol- 
low"  the  example  that  is  always  set  by  Americans  and  avail  himself  at 
least  of  a  small  portion  of  these  ten  minutes.  I  had  thought  that  the 
desire  to  deliver  public  addresses  was  one  which  belonged  largely  to  the 
American  people,  but  the  experience  of  the  past  week  in  this  Alliance 
has  convinced  me  that  the  English  as  well  as  the  Americans  are  not 
averse  to  this  character  of  public  entertainment.  It  seems  to  me  that  at 
the  end  of  a  week,  such  as  we  have  had  here,  a  man  should  be  so  sur- 
charged with  oratory  and  with  theology  and  with  advice  upon  all  sub- 
jects that  he  could  speak  all  night  if  he  had  the  time. 

It  seems  to  me,  my  friends,  that  the  subject  for  this  evening  is  one 
which  more  than  any  other,  or  as  much  as  any  other,  should  appeal  to 
every  one  of  us,  because  if  there  has  been  one  thing  more  than  another 
that  has  been  manifest  in  this  Alliance  for  the  past  week  it  has  been 
the  magnificent  exhibition  of  brotherhood  which  has  been  displayed 
here  iipon  this  floor.  We  know  something  in  America  of  what  it  is  to  be 
brotherly  in  our  various  sections,  in  our  States  and  in  oi;r  sections 
North  and  South,  but  never  before  have  we  witnessed  such  a  magnifi- 
cent display  of  world-wide  brotherhood  as  that  which  has  been  made 
manifest  in  this  Alliance  during  the  past  week.  As  we  have  seen  to- 
gether here  Frenchmen  and  Germans,  Russians  and  Japanese,  English- 


308  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

men  and  Americans,  Northerners  and  Southerners,  all  in  this  loving  re- 
lation one  to  the  other  planning  for  the  extension  of  God's  kingdom  in 
the  world,  we  can  feel  that  indeed  the  Prince  of  Peace  is  ruling  on  the 
earth,  and  that  soon  the  world  in  addition  to  being  a  great  neighborhood 
is  going  to  become  a  great  brotherhood.  My  friends,  I  think  the  time  is 
not  far  distant  when  we  shall  not  know  war  any  more,  and  it  will  not  be 
on  account  of  smokeless  gun-powder,  it  will  not  be  on  account  of  Hague 
tribunals  only;  it  will  not  be  because  of  statesmanship  and  whatever 
it  may  do,  but  it  will  be  through  the  influence  of  the  grace  of  God  and 
through  such  work  as  is  being  done  by  such  an  Alliance  as  we  are  hold- 
ing here  in  this  city.  We  will  indeed  make  Philadelphia  memorable  as 
the  City  of  Brotherly  Love. 

Now,  to-night  it  is  going  to  be  my  pleasui'e  to  present  to  you  several 
gentlemen,  distinguished  in  their  professions,  from  various  parts  of  the 
world,  who  are  to  discuss  this  great  question  of  human  brotherhood.  The 
first  one  whom  it  is  my  pleasure  to  introduce  is  Rev.  J.  H.  Eushbrooke, 
pastor  of  Hampstead  church.  North  London,  England,  eminent  as  a 
scholar,  a  close  friend  of  the  president  of  the  Alliance,  Dr.  Clifford,  and 
one  who  bears  to  us  a  message  from  that  land  upon  the  subject,  "Lidi- 
vidualism  a  Basis  of  Church  Organization."     (Applause.) 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  BROTHERHOOD  IN  THE  CHURCH. 

Individualism  a  Basis  of  Church  Organization. 

By  Rev.  J.  H.  RUSHBROOKE,  M.  A.,  London. 

Baptists  are  irrevocably  committed  to  the  position  of  Individualism.  It 
is  to  them  articulus  stantis  aut  cadentis  ecclesiae.  Through  all  their  his- 
tory they  have  borne  witness  to  the  freedom  and  dignity  of  the  separate 
human  person.  They  have  conceived  vital  religion  as  essentially  the  free 
response  of  the  individual  heart  and  conscience,  intelligence  and  will,  to 
the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  Opportunely  and  inopportunely,  through 
good  and  evil  report,  they  have  unflinchingly  maintained  their  testimony 
to  the  rights  of  the  soul,  its  peculiar  nobility,  and  its  solemn  responsi- 
bility. Their  anthropology  rests  upon  such  basal  convictions  as  these : 
that  each  one  must  give  account  of  himself  to  God ;  that  none  may  for 
himself  repudiate  that  responsibility,  and  none  assume  it  on  behalf  of 
his  fellow;  that  the  individual  as  such  is  the  direct  object  of  the  redemp- 
tive work  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  that  only  through  personal  faith  does  he 
become  possessed  of  the  salvation  of  Christ.  Suppress  such  convictions, 
and  the  Baptistie  raison  d'etre  is  lost.  Nay,  they  cannot  be  suppressed, 
for  they  have  in  the  nature  of  things  an  indestructible  life;  they  are 
rooted  in  the  abiding  relations  of  the  divine  and  the  human : 

''Not  even  Christ  Himself 
Can  save  man  else  than  as  He  holds  man's  soul; 
And  therefore  did  He  come  into  our  flesh, 
As  some  wise  hunter  creeping  on  his  knees 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  309 

With  a  torch,  into  the  blackness  of  some  cave, 
To  face  and  quell  the  beast  there, — take  the  soul 
And  so  possess  the  whole  man,  body  and  soul." 

This  fundamental  individualism  is  the  positive  conviction  underlying  the 
emphatic  negatives  so  characteristic  of  Baptists.  It  explains  the  reso- 
lute ''no"  with  which  they  meet  all  the  encroachments  of  civil  power. 
Worldly  authority,  whether  exercised  by  way  of  constraint  or  restraint, 
coercion  or  cajolery,  persecution  or  patronage,  is  an  alien  intruder  in 
the  realm  of  religion,  an  ''undesirable  alien"  which  Baptists  reject  at  the 
frontier  and  remit  to  its  native  land  at  the  cost  of  those  that  bring  it. 
It  explains  the  consistent  Avitness  of  our  people  against  the  aggression  of 
the  State,  from  the  days  of  Leonard  Busher  and  Roger  Williams — and 
even  earlier:  for  these  men  were  representatives  and  spokesmen  of  a 
belief  older  than  themselves.  The  Baptist  doctrine  of  soul  liberty 
is  indeed  but  the  assertion  on  behalf  of  all  his  fellowmen  of  a  right  that 
is  unspeakably  precious  to  himself.  Whether  shaping  the  constitution  of 
this  great  Republic,  or  withstanding  the  inroads  of  the  State-supported 
priest  in  English  public  schools,  or  enduring  hardships  under  a  Holy 
Synod  in  Russia,  Baptists  have  been  dominated  by  their  essential  prin- 
ciple. They  have  asserted  for  themselves,  and  respected  in  others,  the 
rights  of  personality  in  religion,  subject  only  to  the  Crown  rights  of  the 
one  Redeemer  and  Lord. 

There  is  scant  need,  after  all  that  has  been  said  in  this  Congress, 
to  pause  in  order  to  point  out  the  value  of  our  distinctive  ordinance  in 
setting  forth  and  conserving  our  primary  convictions.  Let  me  limit  my- 
self to  two  reminiscences  by  way  of  illustration.  The  first  is  from  my 
student-days  in  Berlin,  where  I  listened  to  that  most  brilliant  and  sug- 
gestive of  teachers,  Professor  Harnaek.  I  recall  an  afternoon  on  which  he 
referred  to  the  mediaeval  custom  of  celebrating  a  Children's  Eucharist. 
The  Reformers,  he  said,  made  short  work  of  this,  merely  by  asking: 
"What  possible  worth  can  there  be  in  a  rite,  apart  from  intelligence  and 
personal  faith?"  And  he  added  the  searching  question  (which  he  left 
unanswered)  :  "Gentlemen,  if  they  had  faced  the  same  problem  as  to 
infant  baptism,  what  would  have  been  the  effect  on  the  standards  of  our 
church?"  The  other  reminiscence  is  of  a  recent  conversation  with  an 
eminent  Presbyterian  minister.  The  question  had  been  raised:  "How 
comes  it  that  British  Congregationalists  have  in  certain  conspicuous  in- 
stances, ceased  to  be  evangelical,  while  British  Baptists,  though  equality 
destitute  of  authoritative  creeds  and  centralized  control,  have  not?" 
And  he  answered:  "Your  ordinance  protects  you:  for  it  sets  out  in  im- 
pressive   form    the    personal    significance    of    the    great    saving    facts." 

Observe  now  a  seeming  paradox.  We  assert  that  individualism  is  vital 
to  our  position :  nevertheless,  the  governing  title  of  all  the  addresses  at 
this  session  is:  "the  spirit  of  brotherhood."  We  have  to  view  our  indi- 
vidualism in  relation  to  brotherhood  in  the  church.  We  have  to 
reconcile  ideas  which  in  popular  discussion  are  commonly  assumed 
to  be  opposed.  "Individualism,"  "brotherhood" — the  mob  ora- 
tor treats  these  as  excluding  one  another.  Solidarity  is  set  up  against 
separatism :  cooperation  against  competition  :  the  unity  of  society  against 
the  unit  of  the  self.  We  leave  aside  the  wider  aspects  of  the  question 
raised — the  relation  of  the  personal  will  and  the  social  will,  of  liberty 
and  law:  we  are  concerned  only  with  the  church.     Is  there  a  point  of 


310  THE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

view  from  which  in  church  life  inclividvialism  and  brotherhood  appear 
in  manifest  harmony,  a  synthesis  which  includes  in  itself  thesis  and  an- 
tithesis, and  transcends  both? 

Assuredly  there  is.  The  synthesis  is  found  in  the  idea  of  the  spir- 
itual family.  In  the  Baptist  interpretation,  individualism  and  broth- 
erhood are  not  only  not  opposed,  they  imply  one  another.  It  is 
Christian  individualism  which  alone  makes  Christian  fraternity  possible. 
The  governing  fact  which  constitutes  brotherhood  in  its  simplest  sense — 
the  sense  that  obtains  within  the  home — is  oneness  of  relationship  to  the 
head  of  the  family.  The  primary  relation  is  that  with  the  father  of 
each  of  the  persons  physically  descended  from  him,  but  this  carries  as  its 
corollary  a  relation  between  those  persons.  They  have  entered  into  the 
same  inheritance,  physical  and  mental:  they  are  objects  of  a  like  love, 
recipients  of  a  like  training.  Because  each  is  a  son,  all  are  brothers.  The 
language  is  scriptural.  We  are  far  from  questioning  the  reality  of  a  broth- 
erhood of  man  founded  in  his  divine  potentialities,  and  the  derivation  of 
his  natural  life  from  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  all  life :  we  do  not  forget 
the  speech  on  Mars  Hill :  but  the  New  Testament  knows  a  more  exalted 
sonship,  ''children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"  a  sonship  so  much 
richer  and  fuller  that  the  other  appears  in  comparison  scarce  worthy  of 
the  name,  and  the  apostle  may  write  of  Christians  having  received  the 
"adoption  of  sons."  Individuals  ''bom  from  above,"  "born  of  the 
Spirit,"  owning  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all  and  through 
all,  and  in  all,"  persons  to  each  of  whom  grace  has  been  given  according 
to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ — these  are  bound  to  God  by  a  com- 
mon tie,  which  draws  them  one  to  another  in  mutual  love,  and  consti- 
tutes them  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  family  of  God,  the  household  of  faith, 
brothers  in  Christ.  But  apart  from  the  personal  tie  with  the  Divine 
Head,  such  oneness  cannot  be.  Its  essential  condition  fails.  No  indi- 
vidual faith,  no  Christian  brotherhood.  A  personal  transforming  relig- 
ious experience  is  the  indispensable  basis  of  such  a  fraternity  as  is  rep- 
resented by  the  Christian  Church.  Dispense  with  this,  and  we  may  have 
a  baptized  paganism,  or  a  marvellously  cohesive  mechanism,  but  one 
family  dwelling  in  God,  a  true  organic  unity,  we  have  not.  The  church 
idea  is  destroyed;  for  as  the  nineteenth  article  of  the  Anglican  com- 
munion says :  ' '  The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of  faithful 
men. ' ' 

Now  the  test  of  every  ecclesiastical  organization  is  its  capacity  to  em- 
body the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  Christian  religion.  "The  religion," 
says  Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn,*  "is  the  creative,  the  church  the  created  idea; 
and  here,  as  everywhere,  the  law  ought  to  be  valid,  that  the  measure  of 
rr.ifh  for  the  created  idea  is  that  it  shall  harmonize  with  and  truly 
express  the  creative."  No  opinion  could  be  less  justifiable  than  that 
church  polity  is  a  purely  external  matter  to  which  Christian  men  may  be 
indifferent.  How  many  great  historic  names  bear  witness  on  the  other 
side :  Luther,  Calvin,  John  Ivnox,  Robert  Browne,  the  judicious  Hooker, 
George  Fox,  John  Wesley — we  may  add.  General  Booth — are  instances 
of  spiritual  leaders  who  have  devoted  conspicuous  attention  to  organiza- 
tion, and  in  every  instance  the  polity  they  initiate  or  defend  is  depen- 
dent upon  their  theory  of  the  nature  and  task  of  the  Christian  society. 

One  may  agree  with  a  remark  of  Schmiedel  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica 

*" Catholicism,  Roman  and  Anglican,"  p.  32. 


Fiiilay,  Juiu'  23.J  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  311 

tliat  "perhaps  after  all  a  blessing  lay  concealed  in  the  absence  of  form- 
al constitutions  drawn  up  with  the  authority  of  Jesus";  but  Irom  such  a 
proposition  we  do  not  infer  that  all  ecclesiastical  systems  have  equal 
validity.  For  though  Jesus  has  not  entered  into  details,  He  has  laid  down 
principles  which  His  followers  may  ignore  only  at  their  peril.  One  such 
governing  principle  is  transmitted  in  the  report  of  the  conversation  in 
Caesarea  Philippi,  when  in  response  to  the  confession  of  Peter  He  says: 
''Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Karjonah,  for  not  human  wisdom  hath  re- 
vealed this  to  thee,  but  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  And  I  also  say 
unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
church."  Another  great  word  is  this:  "Be  not  ye  called  Kabbi,  for  One 
is  your  teacher,  and  all  ye  are  brethren."  A  third  is  this:  "If  any  man 
would  be  first,  he  shall  be  last  of  all,  and  minister  of  all."  The  church 
which  is  true  to  His  ideas  is  therefore  built  up  of  men  and  women  be- 
liexing  and  confessing :  it  rejects  all  authority  that  conflicts  with  the 
authority  of  the  one  Master  directly  exercised  upon  the  individual:  and 
leadership  within  the  chv;rch  is  not  that  of  Gentile  rulers  that  lord  it 
over  men,  but  preeminence  of  service.  These  are  principles  we 
dare  not  forget.  And  when  it  is  contended  by  Cardinal  New- 
man or  any  other  that  development  is  the  law  of  life,  that  this 
presupposes  interaction  between  organism  and  environment,  and  there- 
fore the  Christian  society  as  a  living  organism,  must  needs  be  modi- 
fied with  the  passing  of  the  centuries,  we  answer  that  while  all  this  is 
true  the  application  of  the  argument  by  Roman  and  Anglican  Catholics 
is  invalid.  The  healthy  organism  does  not  indiscriminately  absorb  the 
elements  of  its  environment :  it  resists  and  repels  those  which  are  incon- 
sistent with  its  own  life-principle.  The  history  of  Catholicism  exhibits 
a  continuous  degeneration  due  to  the  intrusion  of  pagan  and  Judaic  ele- 
ments, and  philosophical  and  political  ideas,  alien  to  the  life-jirinciple 
of  Christianity.  And  the  history  of  Protestantism  is  likewise  deeply 
tinged  with  evils  due  to  the  acceptance  of  non-primitive  tradition  and 
custom,  without  raising  the  question  whether  these  accord  with  the  mind 
of  the  Founder  and  Head  of  the  church,  whether  they  have  a  legitimate 
place  in  a  bi'otherhood  of  the  spiritually  enfranchised. 

The  Baptist  then  finds  in  the  constitutive  idea  of  the  church,  as  the  vol- 
untary but  natural  and  inevitable  association  of  faithful  men,  each  per- 
sonally responsible  to  his  Lord,  the  criterion  of  all  polities  and  modes  of 
organization.  They  are  invalid  if  they  are  antagonistic  to  this  constitu- 
tive idea;  if  they  suppress  the  individual,  or  destroy  the  brotherhood.  A 
papacy  does  both:  and  when  the  Ba{)tist  hears  of  a  fellowman  claiming 
in  the  sphere  of  religion  the  unconditional  submission  of  millions  he  is 
inclined  to  refer  the  claim  to  the  judgment  of  the  Apostle  Peter  who 
(quite  unconscious  that  he  is  the  first  Pope)  exhorts  his  "fellow-elders" 
not  to  lord  it  over  the  charge  allotted  to  them.  The  Baptist  examines 
the  teaching  Avhieh  bases  the  church  upon  a  "historic  episcojiate"  ex- 
ercising an  authority  transmitted  by  succession  from  the  apostles,  only 
to  discover  that  it  rests  upon  bad  exegesis  and  false  history,  and  that  in 
fact  the  monarchical  episcopate  has  usurped  the  rights  of  the  Christian 
people.  In  apostolic  succession  he  firmly  believes:  but  it  is  succession 
of  spiritual  experience  and  of  loyal  service  for  the  kingdom.  The  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles  are  here — pioneers  of  evangelical  teaching  in 
Eastern  Europe,  faithful  pastors  and  church  officers  in  our  own  Anglo- 
Saxon  lands   and  the  certificate  of  their  apostolate  is  written  by  the  finger 


312  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

of  God  on  the  souls  of  men.  The  sacerdotal  basis  of  organization  is  com- 
mended to  the  Baptist,  with  the  sacramentarianism  so  closely  bound  up 
with  it,  but  he  is  forced  to  endorse  the  verdict  of  the  learned  Anglican, 
Bishop  Lightf  oot :  '^The  only  priests  under  the  gospel,  designated  as  such 
in  the  New  Testament,  are  the  saints,  the  members  of  the  new  Christian 
brotherhood. ' '  Of  course  the  Baptist,  being  no  anarchist  but  a  sane  man 
recognizes  the  need  of  organization  if  the  work  of  the  church  is  to  be  ef- 
ficiently done:  he  knows  that  "all  the  members  have  not  the  same  office": 
he  acknowledges  the  legitimacy  of  "rule"  and  "authority"  in  the  New 
Testament  sense,  and  most  emphatically  affirms  the  necessity  of  a  divine 
call  to  the  exercise  of  ministerial  gifts.  But  he  endorses  the  language 
of  the  Presbyterian  Principal  T.  M.  Lindsay:  "I  do  not  see  why  the 
thought  that  authority  comes  from  'above,'  a  dogmatic  truth,  need  in 
any  way  interfere  with  the  eonceiDtion  that  all  official  ecclesiastical 
power  is  representative  and  delegated  to  the  officials  by  the  membership, 
and  that  it  has  its  divine  source  in  the  presence  of  Christ  promised  and 
bestowed  upon  His  people,  and  diffused  through  the  membership  of  the 
churches."  With  passionate  earnestness  the  Baptist  desires  to  see  all 
Christ's  people  one,  but  not  in  the  unity  of  subjection  to  any  alien  and 
usurped  authority  interposed  between  the  soul  and  Christ,  destroying 
"liberty  of  prophesying"  and  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  which 
Dale  of  Birmingham  discovered  "the  ultimate  principle  of  Protestant- 
ism. ' '  Each  member  owning  direct  responsibility  to  God  in  Christ :  each 
local  church  a  spiritual  democracy  under  Christ :  a  federation  of  autono- 
mous communities  for  mutual  support  and  the  carrying  through  of  the 
wider  tasks  of  the  kingdom  of  God — that  is  the  Baptist  conception  of 
church  polity.    All  else  is  anathema. 

One  point  more.  Whilst  speaking  I  have  been  very  conscious  of  the 
restraint  imposed  upon  me  hj  the  programme.  The  definition  of  my 
theme,  and  the  fact  that  another  speaker  has  to  add  the  qualifications, 
has  prevented  me  from  saying  much  that  is  in  my  heart.  This  however 
I  would  add,  at  the  risk  of  trespassing  upon  the  territory  of  Dr.  Pitt : 
Our  individualism  is  on  trial  to-day,  and  our  Congregationalism  is  on 
trial.  Are  w^e  as  thoroughgoing  voluntaryists  able  to  deal  with  problems 
which  confront  Christendom  as  a  whole — the  adequate  support  of  a  min- 
istry in  sparsely  populated  rural  districts,  the  maintenance  of  churches 
in  the  poorest  but  most  densely  inhabited  "down-town"  neighborhoods'? 
Or  must  we  yield  here  to  Methodist  or  Presbyterian  or  Episcopalian? 
Such  are  the  questions  that  confront  and  challenge  us,  and  they  de- 
mand a  clear  and  Christian  interpretation  of  our  terms.  Our  individual- 
ism is  not  liberty  to  please  ourselves :  it  is  solemn  personal  responsibility 
to  please  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Our  Congregationalism  is  not  an  enlarg- 
ed egoism :  indeed  our  autonomy  is  more  complete  than  we  have  some- 
times realized :  it  includes  the  power  and  the  duty  freely  to  combine  with 
other  communities  for  great  common  ends.  Our  absolute  liberty  is  a  lib- 
erty to  become  through  love,  the  bondslaves  of  all.  Such  an  individual- 
ism, such  a  Congregationalism,  such  a  liberty,  such  a  love,  shall  yet 
under  God  make  the  church  of  which  we  are  members  "a  glorious 
church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing."  Father,  Thy 
kingdom  come — through  Thy  church!  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  in 
heaven ! 

(Applause.) 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROVIJIJDIXGS.  313 

Chairaian:  The  subject  to-night  you  will  notice  is  "The  Spirit  of 
Brotherliood  in  its  Relation  First  to  the  Church  and  secondly  to  the 
State."  The  address  that  has  just  been  delivered  has  been  upon  the 
subject  ''Individualism  a  Basis  of  Church  Organization"  The  next  ad- 
dress will  be  on  ''Limits  of  Individualism  in  the  Church,"  and  wDl  6e 
delivered  by  Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  Pitt,  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  editor  of  the 
Religious  Herald,  one  of  the  greatest  denominational  papers  in  this 
country  or  in  the  world.     (Applause.) 


THE  LIMITS  OF  INDIVIDUALISM  IN  THE  CHURCH. 
By  E.  H.  PITT,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Religion  begins  with  the  individual.  The  competency  of  the  soul  under 
God  to  determine  its  own  relations  with  God  must  be  fundamental  in  all 
our  thinking.  But  religion  does  not  end  with  the  individual.  It  has 
its  social  aspects  and  out  of  these  grow  varied  and  innumerable  relation- 
ships and  corresponding  duties.  These  relationships  and  obligations 
mu.st  limit  in  a  practical  way  the  privileges  and  even  the  rights  of  the 
individual.  Entrance  upon  any  social  compact  involves  the  surrender  of 
individual  liberty  to  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

The  church  is  not  a  ready-made  organization  handed  down  from 
Heaven  and  imposed  by  external  authority  upon  man.  It  is  a  growth. 
Disciples  with  a  new-born  hope  in  their  hearts,  with  common  purposes 
and  affections,  came  together  by  a  law  of  social  and  spiritual  gravitation, 
and,  of  course,  under  the  Lordship  of  and  in  obedience" to  Christ. 
Thus  began  the  early  grouping  of  Cliristians.  To  be  sure  there  were  cer- 
tain elementary  principles  controlling  and  determining  the  nature  of  these 
organizations.  The  organizations  themselves  must  have  been  at  first  very 
simple  and  rudimentary.  Nothing  corresponding  to  the  present  elabor- 
ate organization  even  among  our  own  people  can  be  found  in  the  New 
Testament.  Take  a  modern  city  church,  for  example,  with  its  long  list 
of  office-bearers,  its  innumerable  committees,  its  large  propertied  inter- 
ests, its  multiform  activities,  its  world-wide  horizon  of  svmpathy  and  see 
how  far  it  is  removed,  in  degree  at  least,  from  the  little  company  at  Anti- 
och  to  whom  for  the  first  time  the  term  Christian  was  applied.  "Still  if  in 
this  more  elaborate  organization  the  elementary  principles  as  applied  to 
those  earlier  and  simpler  bodies  are  kept  well  in  mind,  then  we  may  most 
stoutly  maintain  that  we  have  not  departed  from  the  Scripture  pattern, 
but  have  simply  developed  it  and  adapted  it  to  the  more  complex  needs  of 
our  own  day  and  time. 

These  early  Christians  came  together  because  they  could  not  keep  apart. 
The  instinct  of  the  renewed  heart  compelled  them  "to  seek  tlie  fellowship 
of  their  brethren.  But  they  could  not  come  together  even  in  rudimentary 
organizations  without  surrendering  to  some  degree  their  individual  pre- 
ferences. This  is  necessary  to  any  sort  of  social  union.  In  the  family 
which  is  our  primary  social  unit,  tliis  principle  is  well  recognized.  Pa- 
rents must  often  surrender  their  own  preferences  and  in  a  measure  their 
own  rights  for  the  sake  of  their  children.  Children  must  yield  their  own 
wills,  brothers  and  sisters  must  co-operate  for  the  common  good  at  the 


314  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAyCE. 

sacrifice  of  their  own  predilections.  Without  such  a  spirit,  without  the 
recognition  of  these  obligations  to  self-forgetfulness  disintegration  or 
something  worse  inevitably  ensues.  This  is  true  also  of  the  church  rela- 
tionship. It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  the  authority  of  the  body  of  be- 
lievers over  the  individual.  He  always  has  his  remedy  at  hand.  If  he 
clearly  sees  that  he  is  the  victim  of  a  tyrannous  spirit,  he  can  at  once 
withdraw  from  the  communion  which  seeks  to  impose  harsh  measures 
upon  him.  It  may  be  mentioned  in  passing  that  many  Baptist  churches 
seem  to  deny  this  right  of  voluntai'y  withdrawal.  It  seems,  however,  to 
this  speaker  that  as  union  with  these  groups  must  be  purely  voluntary  so 
there  ought  to  be  the  unquestioned  right  of  voluntary  withdrawal.  But 
having  come  in  of  his  own  free  will  and  remaining  in  of  his  own  free  will, 
he  must  accept  and  seek  to  meet  the  reasonable  obligations  that  grow  out 
of  his  new  relationship.  He  cannot  remain  in  the  fellowship  and  yet  dis- 
regard the  sacred  obligations  which  the  fellowship  involves. 

Of  course  if  he  has  expressly,  or  by  clear  implication,  assumed  financial 
or  other  burdens  which  he  has  not  discharged  he  may  not  dissolve  such 
contractual  relations  without  the  full  and  free  consent  of  his  brethren, 
with  whom  he  has  entered  into  partnership. 

These  are  the  general  princiides  which  lie  at  the  base  of  this  discussion. 
If  they  are  sound  and  true  then  it  follows  that  there  is  a  duty  of  co-opera- 
tion just  as  plain,  just  as  high,  just  as  imperious  as  any  other  duty  of  the 
disciple.  There  are  two  general  views  of  co-operation  which  may  be  here 
stated.  First,  there  are  those  who  hold  that  the  individual  ought  to  do 
everything  for  himself  and  by  himself  as  far  as  possible ;  then,  at  length 
when  he  finds  himself  unable  alone  to  accomplish  what  needs  to  be  done  he 
may,  if  he  chooses  to  do  so,  unite  with  others  for  its  achievement.  Those 
who  hold  this  view  seem  to  think  that  when  he  does  so  unite,  he  has  per- 
formed a  work  of  su^Dererogation.  Much  stress  is  laid  upon  his  right  to  do 
as  he  pleases  about  it. 

This  view  is  found  also  in  a  prevalent  notion  of  church  independency. 
Our  dread,  and  a  Avell-founded  dread  it  is,  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  our 
historic  and  perpetual  jirotest  against  Pope,  Priest,  Presbyter,  Council 
and  the  like  has  led  us  to  the  other  extreme.  We  are  fond  of  saying,  at 
least  some  of  us  are,  that  a  Baptist  church  is  in  its  relations  with  all 
other  ecclesiastical  organizations  absolutely  independent,  that  it  has  the 
right  to  co-operate  with  sister  churches  or  other  organizations  or  to 
refuse  such  co-operation.  If  by  this  we  mean  to  say  that  there  is  no 
ecclesiastical  body  or  person  ranking  the  church  and  authorized  to  impose 
physical  or  sj^iritual  penalties  then  the  doctrine  is  sound  and  wholesome. 
But  if  we  mean  to  say — and  this  is  practically  what  is  often  meant — that 
the  church  may  in  the  exercise  of  its  right  refuse  to  eo-oiDerate  with 
other  organizations,  and  that  this  refusal  never  involves  a  violation  of 
its  obligations  to  God  and  man,  then  we  are  teaching  a  mischievous  doc- 
trine. There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  is  this  view  of  the  matter  which 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  so  many  so-called  Christian  churches,  thousands 
and  even  tens  of  thousands  of  them  in  our  OAvn  communion,  furnish  not 
the  slightest  evidence  of  their  interest  in  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

The  other  view  of  co-operation  may  be  stated  as  follows :  Wherever  it 
is  possible,  without  sacrifice  of  principle,  to  work  with  our  brethren  we 
ought  gladly  to  do  so.  If  such  co-operation,  however,  is  at  the  cost  of 
loyalty  to  the  truth,  the  price  is  too  high  to  pay  for  it.  This,  it  would 
seem,  is  the  larger,  wiser,  and  saner  view.     It  sometimes  happens,  we 


Friday,  June  23.1  RECORD  OF  l'ROCEEDI\GS.  315 

must  bear  in  mind,  that  men  mistake  mere  pride  of  opinion  for  sincere 
and  reasoned  conviction  of  the  truth.  This  is  one  of  the  very  few  places 
where  the  realm  of  conscience  is  frequently  too  greatly  enlarged,  where 
its  contines  are  stretched  until  they  include  questions  which  rightly  be- 
long to  the  realm  of  expediency. 

There  is  a  possibility  also  of  too  great  sensitiveness,  lest  we  suiTcnder 
our  individual  or  our  denominational  tenets  by  association  with  Christian 
brethren  who  do  not  liold  them.  Why  may  not  brethren  unite  for  com- 
mon ends,  no  nuitter  how  widely  or  deeply  they  may  differ  concerning  mat- 
tex-s  not  necessarily  involved  in  the  purj^ose  of  the  union?  While  on  the 
one  hand  there  must  be  no  cowardly  surrender,  no  faithless  compro- 
mise, no  timid  silence,  yet  on  the  other  if  we  are  well  grounded  in  the 
truth,  if  our  convictions  of  it  are  clear  and  strong  and  well  established, 
why  should  we  be  in  a  state  of  terror  concerning  our  faith  whenever 
we  are  brought  into  contact  with  others  who  do  not  share  these  convic- 
tions with  us? 

It  is  obvious  that  there  are  certain  doctrinal  limitations  which  the 
individual  in  the  church  must  recognize.  It  is  quite  the  fashion  in  our 
day  to  underestimate  the  value  of  doctrine  and  especially  to  depreciate 
the  value  of  doctrinal  statement.  The  church,  as  has  already  been 
stated,  doubtless  found  its  origin  in  the  impulse  to  fellowship  but  that 
fellowship  was  necessarily  based  upon  common  beliefs,  first  of  all,  and 
came  as  one  should  think  a  little  later  on  to  common  practices.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  the  early  church  in  its  crude  beginnings  had 
formulated  for  itself  any  elaborate  creedal  statement.  But  there  were 
certain  vital  beliefs  that  were  surely  common  to  them.  Their  creed  was 
possibly  a  shoi't  one.  It  involved  such  fundamentals  as  the  sovereignty 
of  God,  the  unique  sonship  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  ministry  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  destructive  nature  of  sin,  the  possibility  of  forgiveness,  the 
resurrection  and  ascension  of  Christ  (the  pledge  of  their  own  resurrec- 
tion) and  the  duty  of  His  disciples  to  make  known  the  good  news  which 
He  brought  to  all  the  world.  There  wasn't  much  of  definition  in  that 
creed.  There  were  not  manj^  refinements  of  doctrine  in  their  teaeliing. 
Great,  commanding  and  significant  facts  and  tri;ths  filled  and  possessea 
their  souls  and  these  they  gladly  proclaimed,  though  the  proclamation 
brought  unnumbered  woes. 

Perhaps  we  in  our  own  time  might  learn  a  lesson  of  value  from  these 
early  Christian  folk.  We  might  do  well  not  to  require  too  many  doc- 
trinal limitations  of  the  individual  who  comes  into  our  group  of  wor- 
shipers and  workers.  It  may  be  that  to  ]irovide  too  elaborate  a  basis  of 
doetnnal  union  and  fellowship  would  be  not  only  to  reduce  unnecessarily 
the  number  of  our  co-workers,  but  to  hinder,  almost  cruelly,  among  those 
who  are  with  us  that  free  play  of  the  individual  mind  and  spirit  which 
make  up  the  very  life-blood  of  religion.  Certainly  this  speaker  would 
lift  his  voice  in  earnest  protest  against  any  tendency  to  multiply  doctri- 
nal tests  of  church  or  Christian  fellowship. 

Yet,  after  all  has  been  said,  it  remains  true  that  there  must  be  a 
minimum,  an  irreducible  minimum  of  Christian  doctrine  as  a  basis  of 
union  and  this  must  necessarily  .serve  as  a  limitation  on  individual  free- 
dom in  the  church.  We  come  ujion  a  practical  difficulty  here  which  can- 
not always  be  solved  out  of  hand  and  yet  I  think  we  may  discover  gen- 
eral principles  which  will  help  us  in  the  solution  of  any  such  difficulty. 
Of  course  all  of  us  would  contend  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  individual, 


316  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

indeed  that  it  is  his  supreme  duty  to  be  a  constant  and  an  ardent  seeker 
for  the  truth.  We  should  hold  also  that  having  found  it,  it  is  his  im- 
perative duty  by  every  means  in  his  power  to  make  it  known  to  others. 
Must  he  break  the  fellowship  in  which  he  finds  himself  and  thus  leave 
himself  free  to  proclaim  it  or  must  he  remain  within  that  fellowship, 
regarding  it  as  his  highest  obligation  to  give  this  newly  discovered  truth 
to  those  associated  with  him  in  this  close  relation?  Here  is  a  very  prac- 
tical question  which  has  been  answered  in  a  variety  of  ways.  In  gen- 
eral, each  case  that  thus  arises  must  be  settled  on  its  own  merits.  No 
hard  and  fast  rule  can  be  formulated. 

A  general  principle,  however,  may  be  announced.  If  this  new  truth, 
of  winch  the  individual  has  become  possessed,  is  in  direct  conflict  with 
the  minimum  of  doctrine  on  which  the  fellowship  is  based,  then  there 
is  only  one  righteous,  high-minded  and  honorable  course  for  him  to  pur- 
sue. He  must  be  loyal  to  his  convictions  and  he  must  be  honorable  in 
his  relations  with  his  brethren.  Let  him,  therefore,  in  such  a  case  make 
the  facts  known  and  offer  to  dissolve  the  relationship  which  hampers 
him  and  thus  set  himself  free  to  speak  the  truth  that  burns  in  his  own 
soul.  If  his  brethren  wish  him  then  to  remain,  let  him  do  so,  (pro- 
vided that  such  a  course  does  not  imperil  the  harmony  and  usefulness 
of  the  church)  but  if  not,  then  by  no  sort  of  sophistry  can  he  be  justified 
in  attempting  to  hold  on  to  the  advantages  which  grow  out  of  his  fel- 
lowship while  he  violates  the  obligations  which  the  fellowship  imposes. 
And  by  no  sort  of  argument  could  he  be  justified  in  secretly  holding  or 
privately  promulgating  convictions  whose  proclamation  would  be  rightly 
esteemed  as  bad  faith  with  his  brethren. 

In  the  first  case  he  would  act  dishonorably;  in  the  second  he  would  add 
cowardice  to  dishonor.  The  truth  does  not  need  to  be  proclaimed  or  de- 
fended in  dishonorable  ways  and  a  coward  has  no  rightful  place  among 
truth-lovers  or  truth-seekers. 

Here,  however,  a  word  of  caution  is  necessary.  It  has  too  frequently 
happened  that  men  who  are  searching  for  the  truth  have  mistaken  their 
tentative  guesses  and  half-baked  hypotheses  for  ascertained  results.  By 
blindly  and  foolishlj-  over-estimating  the  value  of  their  own  surmises 
they  have  brought  about  acrimonious  discussion  and  deadly  disunion  and 
alienation  where  nothing  of  the  sort  was  really  inevitable.  Let  us  first 
secure  verified,  ascertained  results  before  we  attack  the  problem  of  what 
we  are  to  do  with  them.  Certainly  neither  the  church  nor  the  general 
public  needs  to  be  disturbed  with  a  recital  of  intellectual  and  critical 
l^rocesses  which  are  as  yet  wholly  incomplete  and  indeterminate. 

That  there  are  ethical  limitations  for  the  individual  which  grow  out 
of  his  church  relationship  goes  without  saying.  I  need  not  dwell  at 
length  upon  these.  Certainly  new  duties  arise  out  of  the  new  relations 
which  he  assumes  when  he  enters  into  church-membership,  new  duties, 
that  is  to  those  who  are  thus  associated  with  him.  Practically  in  church 
life  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  truth  finds  scant  recognition.  Such  a  re- 
lation is  far  too  generally  regarded  as  purely  formal  and  nominal.  It 
wasn  't  so  in  the  beginning  and  it  ought  not  to  be  so  now.  Church-member- 
ship ought  to  connote  far  more  of  fraternity  and  to  carry  with  it  far 
more  of  mutual  obligation  and  helpfulness  than  it  does  in  our  day.  It 
may  be  safely  said  that  if  our  Christian  churches  had  in  any  wise  ap- 
proximated the  true  ideal  in  this  regard,  then  we  should  have  been 
spared  the  apparent  neeessitj-  for  the  innumerable  social  and  fraternal 


Friday,  June  23. J  RECOL'D  OF  rROVEEDlXUi:!.  317 

organizations  that  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  land.  It  is  by  no  means 
rare  to  leani  that  members  of  the  same  church  have  remained  absolute 
strangers  to  one  another  through  a  long  term  of  years  and  membership 
in  any  given  church,  particularly  in  our  larger  bodies,  is  not  held  as  es- 
tablishing any  sort  of  claim  upon  the  sympathy  and  help  of  others  in  the 
same  organization. 

This  feeling  of  brotherhood  has  suffered  from  a  variety  of  causes.  In 
our  great  overgrown  churches  the  tie  is  almost  inevitably  weak. 
The  opportunities  for  personal  acquaintance  and  contact  are 
greatly  reduced  and  it  is  possible  for  men  to  live  and  die  in 
the  same  church  organization  complete  strangers  to  many  of  those  who 
are  associated  with  them.  In  such  a  case  the  bond  of  fellowship  amounts 
to  very  little  and  opportunities  for  mutual  helpfulness  are  rare.  This 
tie  is  further  weakened  by  a  certain  fatal  facility  with  which  new-comers 
are  introduced  into  the  fellowship  and  a  certain  fatal  tenacity'  by  which 
they  hold  to  this  relation  often  after  they  have  ceased  to  recognize  it  as 
having  any  significance  in  their  lives.  It  would  seem  important  to  sig- 
nalize more  than  we  do  the  entrance  upon  these  new  duties  and  privi- 
leges and  to  give  to  church-membership  and  fellowship  a  far  richer  and 
fuller  interpretation  than  we  are  accustomed  to  give  to  them  in  our  mod- 
ern time.  The  neAvspapers  and  magazines  frequently  carry  leading 
articles  commenting  upon  an  alleged  alienation  of  the  masses  from  the 
churches.  Of  coui'se  the  evil  is  largely  exaggerated  but  that  it  has  some 
basis  in  the  facts  of  the  case  every  careful  observer  must  admit.  Vari- 
ous remedies  are  suggested.  Practically  all  of  them,  however,  point  in 
the  same  direction,  namely  in  what  is  called  the  modernization  of  the 
church  and  its  services.  We  are  told,  sometimes  gravely  and  sometimes 
glibly,  that  the  impatient  world  has  outlived  the  old  teaching  which  made 
Christianity  pow'erful  in  other  centuries  and  that  we  need  now  to  sub- 
stitute for  the  gospel  of  sin  and  salvation,  for  the  doctrine  of  a  lov- 
ing Heavenly  Father  and  a  suffering  Saviour,  discussions  of  current 
questions,  political,  sociological  and  what  not.  For  my  own  part,  I  be- 
lieve that  such  a  loss  of  power  over  the  masses  of  people  as  may  be  dis- 
cerned could  be  most  qi;ickly  and  surely  I'epaired  by  a  full  and  joyful 
recognition  of  the  moral  obligations  of  church-members  to  one  another, 
by  a  full  exemplification  in  our  churches  of  that  spirit  of  brotherhood 
which  is  of  the  very  essence  of  our  Lord's  life  and  teaching.  The  indi- 
vidual in  the  church  cannot  go  his  own  gait  without  respect  to  his 
brethren.  He  cannot  indulge  his  own  whims,  gratify  his  own  wishes, 
pursue  his  own  plans,  adopt  his  own  methods,  live  his  self-centered  life, 
without  reference  to  the  welfare,  the  happiness  and  the  preferences  of 
bis  brethren.  Here,  indeed,  opens  up  before  us  opportunity,  which  may 
not  now  be  used,  for  extended  practical  discussion  and  suggestion. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  after  all  the  prime  purpose  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  church,  not  perhaps  carefully  formulated  but  nevertheless 
easily  recognized,  was  co-operation.  If  the  individual  disciple  could 
have  solved  his  own  problems,  nourished  his  own  hopes,  fulfilled  his  own 
new-born  aspirations,  satisfied  his  own  affections  better  by  himself  than 
by  association  with  others,  there  would  have  been  no  Christian  church. 
He  did  not  need  to  reason  about  it.  The  Christian  instinct  within  him, 
dominant  and  irrepressible,  drove  him  imperiously  to  seek  this  fellow- 
ship. A  community  of  dangers  and  of  necessities,  a  love  for  his  breth- 
ren which  was  to  be  given  as  a  supreme  test  of  discipleship  springing 


318  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAXCE. 

up  in  his  heart,  an  altruism  high  and  noble,  a  craving,  an  inextinguish- 
able craving  for  the  comfort  and  the  joy  which  such  fellowship  would 
bring,  these  and  motives  like  these  brought  the  early  Christians  together 
and  kept  them  together.  So  strong,  so  enduring  was  this  bond  of  brother- 
hood that  all  the  tortures  which  fiendish  ingenuity  could  ii]vent  were  un- 
able to  sever  it.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  when  we  come  to  talk  of 
the  duty  and  work  of  co-operation  as  applied  to  our  great  missionary, 
benevolent  and  educational  enterprises  we  introduce  no  new  principle 
into  our  Christian  organizations.  That  principle  of  co-operation  for 
common  ends  lies  in  the  very  foundation  of  even  those  crudely  formed 
churches  of  the  New  Testament  period.  W?e  simply  take  that  principle 
and  widen  it  and  exalt  it  and  multiply  its  applications  until  the  whole 
round  world  and  the  whole  human  race  are  embraced  within  its  compass. 

Despite  all  this,  there  are  far  too  many  who  are  yet  slow  of  heart  to 
understand  that  church-membership  carries  with  it  the  inevitable  obli- 
gation to  work  with  one's  brethren  for  the  furtherance  of  all  great  com- 
mon purposes.  The  disciple  may  not  do  as  he  pleases  about  it.  He  must 
do  as  his  Lord  pleases  and  it  is  plainly  the  pleasure  of  his  Lord  that  his 
people  should,  side  by  side,  and  heart  with  heart,  labor  earnestly  and  un- 
ceasingly for  the  spread  of  His  truth  and  the  coming  of  His  kingdom. 

Much  is  said  in  modern  times  about  heresies,  and  doubtless  there  are 
many  departures  from  the  ancient  faith  that  are  to  be  observed  and 
deplored.  But  the  most  deadly  and  far-reaching  of  heresies  is  not  so 
much  doctrinal  as  practical.  It  is  found  in  the  failure  of  individual 
Christians  to  rejoice  in  the  opportunity  of  collaboration  for  the  King- 
dom of  Christ,  in  their  persistent  and  willful  neglect  of  what  ought  to 
be  not  merely  a  high  and  holy  duty  but  an  inestimable  and  glorious 
privilege.  To  be  orthodox  on  baptism — the  act,  the  subject,  and  the  ad- 
ministrator; on  communion,  its  significance  and  its  participants;  on 
church  order  and  procedure — these  to  be  sure  are  not  despicable  and  it 
is  not  my  purpose  to  underestimate  them,  but  I  dare  to  say  that  to  be 
orthodox  on  these  while  one  turns  his  back  unmoved  upon  the  world 
that  lieth  in  the  evil  one,  while  one  stands  indifferent  to  the  vast  pro- 
cession of  human  souls  moving  out  into  darkness,  while  one  refuses  to 
join  that  great  army  struggling  for  righteousness,  for  kindness,  for 
nobleness,  for  the  things  that  are  lovely  and  of  good  report,  is  to  tithe 
the  anise  and  the  cummin,  the  mint  and  the  dill,  while  the  weightier  mat- 
ters of  the  law  and  the  gospel  go  neglected  and  uncared  for. 

Doctrinal,  ethical,  and  practical  limitations  thus  surround  the  indi- 
vidual in  his  relation  to  his  church.  But  these  are  not  to  be  thought  of 
as  so  many  stern,  literal,  and  loveless  restrictions,  not  as  fetters  which 
in  the  spirit  of  the  galley  slave  he  is  compelled  to  wear.  Over  them  all 
must  shine  the  softened  light  of  the  one  great  subduing  and  irradiating 
principle  of  love.  Here,  after  all,  is  the  truest  and  highest  altruism. 
He  enters  into  this  fellowship,  as  I  have  said,  because  he  craves  the 
comfort,  the  joy,  the  help  which  the  fellowship  brings;  but  behind  this, 
rooting  itself  perhaps  yet  more  deeply  in  his  ransomed  soul,  must  be  the 
passion  which  consumed  his  Master,  the  passion  of  doing  good  to  others. 
The  law  of  love,  therefore,  in  all  its  various  ramifications,  in  all  its  in- 
numerable opportunities  for  service,  is  the  great  central  and  reigning 
fact  in  the  life  of  the  Christian.  This  laAv  must  be  sacredly  kept  in  the 
life  of  the  church.  It  must  find  its  fulfilment  in  the  relations  of  the 
church-member  to  the  body.    It  must  express  itself  in  the  relation  of  the 


Friday,  .June   23.]  RECOh'D  OF  PROCIJEDIXGH.  319 

clmrcli  to  the  larger  body  of  Christians  with  which  it  is  identified  and  I 
ventui'e  to  say,  it  deserves  taller  recognition  and  more  complete  ex- 
pression in  the  yet  larger  field  wherein  tlie  denomination  itself  comes 
into  contact  with  Christians  of  other  names  and  communions.  No  pro- 
founder  or  more  impressive  word,  or  more  practical  or  useful  utterance 
ever  tell  from  human  li^js  than  that  which  declares  that  love  is  the  ful- 
filling of  the  law. 

(Applause.) 

Hymn,  '^Work  for  the  Night  is  Coming." 

Chairman:  The  next  part  of  the  program  is  "The  Spirit  of  Brother- 
hood in  Its  Relation  to  the  State,"  and  the  subject  for  discussion  by  Dr. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  of  world-wide  fame  for  the  work  he  is  doing  for 
the  elevation  of  his  race,  will  be : 


BAPTIST  POLICY  AND  GOOD  CITIZENSHIP. 

Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  was  received  with  applause  and  the  Chau- 
tauqua salute,  and  said :  Mr.  President  and  Christian  friends :  Mj^  mes- 
sage to  a  large  part  of  this  audience  I  fear  will  not  be  new.  In  fact  as  I 
contemplate  tluit  I  am  overcome  with  a  feeling  of  embaiTassment.  Some 
years  ag'o  I  was  called  into  a  country  district  by  a  Baptist  pastor  who 
had  a  little  church  not  far  from  our  institution  at  Tuskegee.  This 
church  in  some  way  had  gotten  into  trouble  with  its  pastor,  or  the  pas- 
tor had  gotten  into  trouble  with  the  church — I  don't  know  which  it 
was;  but  there  was  trouble  there.  I  went  out  into  his  district  one  after- 
noon and  he  called  his  little  congregation  together  and  I  soon  found 
that  the  majority  of  the  congregation  had  got  to  the  point  where  the}- 
would  not  pay  the  old  man's  salary  and  he  was  having  a  pretty  hard 
time  in  getting  his  monthly  wages.  He  called  his  little  audience  to  his 
little  log  church  and  asked  me  to  speak  to  the  people.  I  did  so;  and  I 
told  the  members  of  the  church  that  they  ought  to  pay  their  pastor 'a 
salary  promptly  and  generously  every  month.  I  think  I  made  a  good  im- 
pression on  the  greater  part  of  the  little  audience,  but  there  was  one  old 
fellow  who  sat  away  back  in  the  corner  of  the  chui'ch  on  whom  my  words 
made  no  impression  whatever.  As  I  would  urge  them  to  pay  the  salary 
he  would  tuck  his  eyes  behind  his  hat  and  murmur  something  to  this  ef- 
fect:  "Now,  we  are  not  going  to  pay  him  a  cent  more  i*alary  this  year." 
Finally  I  said  to  him:  "Now  brother,  will  you  be  perfectly  frank  and 
stand  up  and  tell  us  just  what  the  trouble  is  in  this  church?"  The  old 
fellow  rose  to  his  feet  and  said:  "Because  we  paid  him  for  them  same 
sermons  last  year."  (Laughter.)  I  am  afraid  that  that  story  indicates 
the  judgment  which  a  large  proportion  of  this  great  audience  will  be 
tempted  to  pronounce  upon  me  before  I  sluill  have  finislied  with  my  little 
talk  to-night. 

I  am  proud,  my  Christian  friends,  to  have  some  part  in  this  great 
world-wide  gathering;  I  am  proud  that  I  am  an  American  citizen;  I  am 


320  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

proud  that  I  am  a  Southern  man;  and  since  the  evil  of  slavery  was  to 
exist  in  our  country  and  both  black  man  and  white  man  must  get  the 
experience  growing  out  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  I  am  proud  that  I 
was  a  slave  and  had  that  experience.  I  am  proud  of  the  fact  that  I  am 
an  American  Negro,  and  I  am  proud  of  the  fact  that  I  am  a  member  of 
a  Baptist  church. 

The  Negro  Baptists  in  the  United  States  have  some  history  of  which 
they  are  justly  proud.  In  1776,  I  think  it  was,  the  first  Negro  Baptist 
church  was  organized  in  America  at  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  and  still 
later,  one  was  organized  the  same  year  at  Savannah,  Georgia.  A,  year 
later  one  was  organized  at  Augusta,  Georgia,  and  it  may  be  a  matter  of 
interest  to  some  of  you  to  know  that  for  twenty-five  years  one  of  the 
oldest  and  largest  Negro  Baptist  churches  had  as  its  pastor  one  of  the 
finest  spirits  among  the  white  people  in  the  South;  I  refer  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Ryland,  college  president.  For  twenty-five  years  and  more  while 
he  was  president  of  Richmond  College  in  Virginia,  Dr.  Ryland  was  also 
the  pastor  of  the  First  African  Baptist  Church  in  Richmond,  Virginia. 
I  am  proud  of  the  fact  that  it  was  a  Baptist  Association  in  North  Caro- 
lina that  first  passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  henceforward  all 
marriages  between  black  people,  though  they  were  in  slavery,  must  be 
considered  sacred. 

From  three  churches,  the  Negro  Baptists  of  America  have  grown  a 
little  during  the  last  few  years,  until  we  number  as  Negro  Baptists  in 
this  country  at  the  present  time  two  million  two  hundred  and  sixty-one 
thousand  church  communicants.  That  is  a  larger  number  than  you  have 
in  the  white  Southern  Baptist  Convention  I  think  you  will  find,  and  I 
think  a  little  larger  number,  if  I  mistake  not,  than  you  have  in  the  white 
Northern  Baptist  Convention.  If  you  ask  me  why  Negroes  become  Bap- 
tists in  such  large  numbers,  my  answer  is  I  suppose  because  we  haven't 
got  any  more  sense  than  to  believe  just  what  the  Bible  says.  And  we 
haven't  stopped  growing  yet,  and  if  we  are  in  any  degree  unorthodox 
it  consists  in  the  fact  that  we  seem  to  have  a  bishop  of  our  church  in 
the  person  of  Dr.  E.  C.  Morris,  who  is  the  perpetual  president  of  our 
Convention.  In  fact,  the  first  thing  that  our  Negro  National  Conven- 
tion does  when  it  meets,  even  before  it  organizes,  is  to  elect  Dr.  Morris, 
president.  If  you  Northern  and  Southern  white  Baptists  ever  get  to 
the  point  where  you  cannot  agree  we  are  ready  to  absorb  you.  (Laugh- 
ter.) 

We  have  not  only  grown,  my  friends,  in  church-membership,  but  my 
race  in  America,  despite  all  that  has  been  said  to  the  contrary,  is  grow- 
ing in  numbers.  We  came  into  this  country  twenty  in  number;  we  are 
now  ten  millions  in  number  and  we  are  growing  still.  We  have  this  ad- 
vantage:  when  a  fellow  is  a  little  off  color  he  falls  to  our  pile.  (Laugh- 
ter.) When  this  country  began  taking  in  out-lying  islands,  Cuba,  Porto 
Rico,  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  those  people  began 
to  flock  into  this  country  in  large  numbers.  They  examined  their  hair, 
they  looked  at  their  skin,  they  examined  their  nose,  but  they  couldn't 


Fritlay,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  321 

decide  where  or  how  to  classify  them,  and  they  finallj^  said:  *'We  bet- 
ter be  on  the  safe  side  and  give  them  to  the  Negroes."  So  we  got  all 
of  them.     (Laughter.)     My  friends,  we  are  growing  still. 

We  have  been  part  of  the  history  of  this  country  from  the  beginning. 
When  the  Pacific  Ocean  Avas  discovered,  a  Negro  was  with  the  white  man 
that  discovered  that  ocean.  When  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  crossed 
for  the  first  time  a  Negro  was  with  the  white  man.  When  what  is  known 
now  as  Oregon  and  Washington  was  discovered,  a  Negro  Avas  with 
Lewis  and  Clark.  And  when  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought  Ne- 
groes were  there.  And  still  later  when  our  Southern  brethren  and 
Northern  brethren  got  into  a  dispute  with  each  other,  some  black  peo- 
ple were  on  the  Northern  side  and  some  on  the  Southern  side,  because 
a  black  man  never  likes  to  hurt  anybody's  feelings.  (Laughter.)  And 
a  few  months  ag'o  when  an  Amei'ican  white  man  found  himself  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  civilization  standing  at  the  North  Pole,  when 
he  turned  around,  a  great  big  black  Negro  was  right  there  by  his  side. 
(Laughter.) 

Seriously,  my  friends,  my  race  is  the  only  race  with  a  dark  skin  that 
the  white  man  has  ever  permitted  to  live  by  his  side  in  large  numbers, 
look  him  in  the  face,  and  survive.  We  are  the  only  race  that  has  ever 
been  able  to  go  through  that  experience;  eveiy  other  dark-skinned  race 
that  has  tried  to  live  on  the  same  soil,  in  the  same  country,  by  the  side 
of  the  white  man  has  disappeared  or  is  disappearing.  But  the  Negro 
not  only  lives  by  the  white  man 's  side,  but  has  got  sense  enough  at  every 
point  of  contact  to  get  something  from  the  white  man  that  makes  him  a 
better  and  more  useful  citizen.  We  have  been  free  in  America  forty- 
eight  years.  What  have  we  accomplished  in  becoming  American  citi- 
zens? We  started  practically  with  nothing  except  for  a  few  quills  and 
some  pumpkins  and  perhaps  a  few  cliickens  gathered  from  miscellaneous 
sources.  (Laughter.)  Thinking  of  chickens,  I  was  making  a  journey 
through  my  country  in  Alabama  a  few  months  ago  and  I  had  an  en- 
gagement with  an  old  fellow  and  he  was  about  an  hour  late.  I  said  to 
him,  ''Where  have  you  been?  What's  the  trouble?"  He  said,  ''I  have 
had  a  lot  of  trouble  at  home.  My  wife  left  the  chicken-house  open  and 
all  the  chickens  got  out  and  went  home."     (Laughter.) 

But,  my  friends,  we  have  made  progress  in  the  fundamentals  of  Chris- 
tian civilization  in  this  country.  Take  the  State  of  Virginia,  for  exam- 
ple, where  our  educated  teachers,  our  educated  ministers,  our  educated 
missionaries  have  been  at  work  among  the  masses  for  forty-eight  years, 
and  what  can  we  expect  materially  as  a  result  of  that  effort?  To-day 
in  Virginia  by  the  Auditor's  record  in  Richmond,  you  will  find  that  the 
black  man  owns  and  pays  taxes  upon  one-twenty-fourth  of  all  the  soil  of 
Virginia.  In  the  counties  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  we  own  and 
pay  taxes  upon  one-fourteenth  of  the  soil,  and  in  three  counties  of  Vir- 
ginia we  own  and  pay  taxes  upon  one-quarter  of  the  soil.  Go  farther 
south;  take  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  what  is  the  result  of  the  work  of 
the  teacher,  of  the  Christian  minister  and  of  the  Christian  missionary  in 


322  TEE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

material  results?  In  Georgia  to-day  you  will  find  by  the  Controller's  rec- 
ords in  Atlanta,  that  the  black  peoiole  in  that  State  pay  taxes  on  twenty- 
eight  million  five  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
farm  property,  leaving  out  what  they  own  in  the  form  of  town  and  city 
lots,  which  is  considerable.  And  you  must  remember  that  the  black  man 
learns  mighty  quickly  from  the  white  man.  If  the  white  man  does  not 
pay  taxes  on  all  of  his,  the  Negro  does  not  pay  taxes  on  all  of  his. 

At  a  very  conservative  figure  the  American  Negroes  since  they  became 
free  have  bought  and  now  pay  taxes  upon  at  least  six  hundred  million 
dollars'  worth  of  property.  We  own  in  the  Southern  States  a  terri- 
tory of  land  equal  to  the  combined  physical  territory  of  the  kingdoms  oi 
Holland  and  Belgium.  We  have  there  in  the  Southern  States  alone  some 
ten  thousand  little  dry-goods  stores  and  grocery  stores,  and  we  have 
over  two  hundred  drug  stores,  and  we  have  in  the  Southern  States  fifty- 
six  banks  owned  and  operated  by  black  people— black  presidents  of 
banks,  black  cashiers  of  banks,  and  what  not.  I  read  an  item  in  a  news- 
paper a  few  days  ago  that  we  are  making  such  progress  in  following  the 
steps  of  the  white  man  that  a  Negro  down  in  Texas  even  robbed  a  bank. 
(Laughter.) 

Fifty  years  ago  Eussia  freed  fourteen  million  serfs  and  provided  to 
some  extent  to  give  them  property  on  which  to  make  a  start  in  life. 
Forty-eight  years  ago  the  United  States  freed  four  millions  of  black 
people  and  gave  them  no  property  on  which  to  make  a  start.  To-day  the 
serfs  in  Russia  own  five  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  property;  to- 
day the  Negroes,  ten  million  strong  in  America,  own  six  hundred  million 
dollars'  worth  of  property.  And,  Mr.  President,  the  American  Negro 
Baptists  stand  ready  to  join  with  you  in  sending  the  gospel  to  our  broth- 
ers in  Russia.  Now,  why  do  I  dwell  uj^on  these  material  things  of  life? 
It  is  because  in  my  race  we  find  it  a  hard  thing  to  keep  a  man  a  good 
Christian  when  he  is  hungry. 

We  have  made  progress  in  the  matter  of  Christian  education.  The 
greatest  element  of  progress,  as  I  see  it,  achieved  by  my  race  in  forty- 
eight  years  of  freedom  has  been  its  realization  of  the  dignity  and  saving 
power  of  labor.  No  race  can  ever  be  saved,  in  my  opinion,  in  this  or  any 
other  world  until  it  has  learned  the  fundamental  fact  that  all  forms  of 
idleness  are  a  disgrace,  and  all  forms  of  labor  are  dignified  and  honor- 
able. Now,  my  friends,  I  know  that  you  often  become  impatient  with 
the  Negro.  You  look  at  him,  and  we  are  behind  you,  we  are  slow  in  our 
thinking,  in  our  movements  and  you  become  impatient  with  us ;  but  re- 
member that  in  the  providence  of  God  there  are  ten  million  of  us  drop- 
ped right  down  here  in  your  midst  and  naturally  and  unconsciously  you 
compare  us  with  yourselves,  and  compare  our  rate  of  growth  with  your 
rate  of  growth,  forgetting  when  you  are  doing  that  that  you  are  measur- 
ing us  with  a  pretty  severe  yard-stick.  When  we  can  catch  up  with  the 
American  white  man,  thei-e  won't  be  any  other  fellow  ahead  of  us.  But 
unconsciously  you  compare  our  growth  with  your  growth,  our  civilization 
with  your  civilization,  and  that  is  a  pretty  hard  place  to  put  any  human 


Friday,   .luiu'   2:5.1  h'KCOh'l)  OF  I'ROCJJEDIXGti.  323 

being.  Now,  if  we  were  living  in  the  midst  of  an  Oriental  civilization, 
if  we  were  living  in  the  midst  of  a  Latin  civilization,  the  test  would  not 
be  so  great. 

I  was  in  southern  Italy  last  summer  and  I  saw  some  groups  of  people 
down  there  who  are  more  to  our  gait.  But  we  believe  that  the  money 
spent  by  the  Soutliern  States,  the  money  raised  by  ourselves,  the  money 
contributed  by  philanthropic  people  throughout  the  country  for  our  edu- 
cation has  not  been  thrown  away.  Let  me  make  a  little  comparison. 
To-day  if  you  go  into  Italy  where  people  have  been  free  for  genera- 
tions, you  will  find  that  thirty  per  cent  of  them  can  neither  read  nor 
write.  Go  into  Sicily,  where  I  was  last  summer,  and  eighty  per  cent  can 
neither  read  nor  write.  Go  into  Spain  to-day  and  sixty  per  cent  can 
neither^read  nor  write.  Go  into  Russia  and  seventy  per  cent  can  neither 
read  nor  write.  Go  into  Portugal  and  ninety  per  cent  and  more  can 
neither  read  nor  write.  Whereas  in  the  case  of  the  American  Negro,  free 
for  forty-eight  years,  we  have  already  got  to  the  point  where  fifty-eight 
per  cent  of  our  race  can  both  read  and  write.  Our  work  of  education  is 
not  complete,  however,  because  there  are  some  few  people  scattered  about 
in  different  parts  of  the  world  who  still  have  the  idea  that  it  is  necessary 
to  spend  millions  of  dollars  in  educating  the  Irishman,  the  Frenchman, 
the  German,  the  Italian,  but  who  claim  by  implication  at  least  that  the 
black  man,  the  black  child,  is  naturally  born  into  the  world  with  so 
much  education  that  he  does  not  need  any  training  after  getting  into  it. 
(Laughter.)  Now,  that  implies  too  high  a  compliment  to  the  natural 
intelligence  of  my  race. 

Morally  and  religiously,  we  are  making  progress.  To-day  we  have  in 
the  United  States  thirty-five  thousand  Sunday-schools,  we  have  thirty- 
two  thousand  Christian  ministers,  we  have  thirty-five  thousand  Christian 
churches,  and  we  have  fifty-six  million  dollars'  worth  of  church  property. 
Isn't  that  making  some  progress?  No  other  race  has  made  such  swift 
progress.  My  race  has  the  reputation  of  making  great  progress  in  many 
things.  In  Atlanta  a  few  weeks  ago  there  was  a  colored  man  called 
before  the  magistrate  in  a  shooting  scrape.  The  judge  said,  '''Tom,  did 
you  hear  the  bullet?"  He  said,  *'Yes,  judge,  I  heard  the  bullet  twice; 
I  heard  the  bullet  when  it  passed  me  and  then  I  heard  the  bullet  again 
Avhen  I  passed  the  bullet."     That  is  a  case  of  our  promptness. 

Let  me  add  before  I  close  that  there  are  two  races  in  this  countr\'. 
We  have  not  only  the  problem  of  educating  our  own  race,  but  the  prob- 
lem of  equal  importance  of  helping  our  race  so  to  articulate  its  life  into 
that  of  the  white  race  that  there  shall  be  peace  and  harmony  and  good- 
will between  black  people  and  white  people.  Some  years  ago  in  Ala- 
bama there  was  an  old  colored  man  out  on  a  plantation  who  had  a  dream. 
We  are  great  people  for  having  dreams.  In  this  dream  or  vision  this  old 
man  was  taken  down  to  the  bad  place.  We  used  to  have  a  name  by  whieli 
we  called  the  bad  place,  but  I  think  the  new  theology  has  changed  it  all 
around  now  so  that  I  don't  know  what  to  call  it.  But  I  do  know  this, 
that  the  place  is  there  nevertheless.     This  old  man  said  he  was  taken 


324  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

down  there  and  spent  several  days  and  then  came  back.  The  colored 
people  crowded  around  his  cabin  door  asking  him  all  sorts  of  ques- 
tions. One  said,  ''What  did  you  see?"  One  said,  ''What  kind  of  peo- 
ple did  you  see?"  Another  said,  "Were  there  any  colored  people  down 
there?"  He  said,  "Yes,  that  place  is  full  of  colored  people."  Another 
said,  "Were  there  any  white  people  there?"  "Yes,  white  people  down 
there  too."  Another  still  more  curious  said,  "What  m  the  world  were 
the  white  people  doing  down  there?"  "Well,"  the  old  fellow  said, 
"every  white  man  had  a  Negro,  holding  him  between  himself  and  the 
fire."  Now,  my  friends,  with  all  of  our  weaknesses  and  shortcomings 
as  a  race  of  people,  there  is  no  Christian  citizen  of  America  with  a  white 
skin  who  will  not  acknowledge  that  since  the  foundation  of  this  country 
we  have  stood  between  the  white  man  and  a  good  many  hard  places 
in  America.  We  have  been  of  service  to  the  white  man  in  this  country 
and  in  this  world,  and  we  may  have  to  serve  some  of  them  in  the  next 
world.  So  it  may  be  hard  to  find  enough  colored  people  to  go  around. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  said  at  the  beginning  that  I  am  a  Southern  man;  I 
was  born  in  the  South,  I  love  the  South,  I  think  I  know  something  of  the 
South.  We  are  not  all  angels  down  there,  either  white  or  black.  There 
is  wrong  in  the  South,  there  is  injustice  in  the  South,  often  perpetrated 
upon  my  race.  But,  my  friends,  I  don't  wish  you  to  misunderstand  me; 
we  are  making  progress  in  the  South ;  we  are  solving  our  problems ;  white 
man  and  black  man  together  we  are  solving  our  problems.  I  speak  es- 
pecially to  you  who  come  from  across  the  water.  When  I  was  in  Eu- 
rope a  few  months  ago  I  found  that  in  Europe  you  hear  the  worst  things 
that  take  place  between  black  men  and  white  men  in  the  South.  You 
seldom  hear  of  the  best  things  that  take  place  in  the  South  between  the 
black  man  and  the  white  man.  You  hear  of  the  white  man  in  the  South 
who  curses  the  Negro ;  you  don 't  hear  of  the  man  who  blesses  the  Negro. 
There  are  two  classes  of  Southern  white  men,  the  class  that  does  not  be- 
lieve in  Negro  education,  a  class  that  is  loud  in  cursing  and  damning  Ne- 
groes; and  there  is  another  class,  a  quiet  class,  a  conservative,  intelligent, 
cultured  class  of  white  people  in  the  South  who  believe  just  as  much  in 
giving  the  Negro  all  his  rights  as  a  Christian  citizen  as  any  class  of  white 
people  in  the  North,  in  Europe  or  anywhere  else. 

I  have  referred  to  the  property  that  we  own  in  the  South,  millions  of 
acres  of  land.  I  have  referred  to  the  fact  that  we  have  ten  thousand 
stores  in  the  South;  I  have  referred  to  the  fact  that  we  have  fifty-six 
million  dollars'  worth  of  church  property  and  the  fact  that  we  have 
fifty-six  banks  in  the  South.  We  could  not  own  and  enjoy  this  property 
in  the  South  unless  in  every  community  we  had  warm,  loyal,  courageous 
white  people  who  are  our  friends.  We  need  to  stand  by  such  friends  and 
they  are  going  to  stand  by  us  in  the  future  as  they  have  in  the  past.  Get 
beneath  the  surface  in  the  South,  go  into  any  community  and  3'ou  will  find 
that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  no  matter  what  the  political  demagogues 
may  say,  no  matter  what  the  sensational  newspapers  may  say,  get  be- 
neath the  surface,  get  into  the  Southern  communities,  and  in  nine  eases 


Friday,  June  23. J  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  325 

out  of  ten,  white  men  and  black  men  are  living  there  in  peace,  harmony, 
and  friendship.  In  the  average  Southern  community  every  Negro  has 
a  white  fi'iend,  and  every  wliite  man  has  his  Negro  Iriend,  and  the  rela- 
tions between  the  individual  Negro  and  the  individual  white  man  in  our 
Southern  States  are  closer  than  they  are  in  any  other  part  of  the  world 
outside  of  the  Southern  States.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Southern 
white  man  knows  the  Negro  better  than  anybody  on  earth.  I  haven't 
time  to  debate  that  question,  but  I  will  add  this,  that  the  Southern  Ne- 
gro knows  the  Southern  white  man  better  than  anybody  on  earth.  You 
cannot  find,— and  I  measure  my  words  when  I  make  this  statement, — 
you  cannot  find  in  the  civilized  or  uncivilized  world  in  any  part  of  any 
country  where  there  are  so  many  people  with  black  skins  living  day  by 
day  b}'  the  side  of  so  many  people  with  white  skins,  where  the  rela-' 
tions,  all  things  considered,  are  so  friendly,  so  satisfactory,  so  hopeful, 
as  they  are  in  the  Southern  States  of  the  United  States.  And  you  can- 
not find  a  parallel  where  people  of  another  race  and  another  skin  have 
helped  the  people  so  generously  towards  Christian  civilization  as  the 
white  man,  North  and  South,  has  helped  the  ten  millions  of  Negroes  iu 
America. 

My  friends,  Ave  thank  you  over  and  over  again  for  your  generosity. 
When  I  was  a  boy  living  in  the  hills  of  West  Virginia  I  used  to  be  a 
great  fighter.  I  used  to  have  a  fight  with  some  boy  every  day;  in  fact  I 
was  the  champion  for  my  community  and  I  always  whipped  the  boy, 
whipped  him  every  time  I  fought  him.  And  so  I  became  the  champion. 
I  held  the  championship  longer  than  some  of  those  fellows  hold  it  now. 
(Laughter.)  But  the  people  in  my  community  did  not  know  how  I 
held  the  championship;  I  will  tell  you.  I  never  fought  a  boy  till  I  had 
had  a  chance  of  examining  that  boy.  I  knew  that  the  boy  was  smaller 
than  I  was,  younger  than  I  was,  weaker  than  I  was,  and  then  I  would 
want  to  fight  him.  I  would  usually  whip  him  and  I  used  to  take  great 
delight  in  my  youthful  days  in  getting  one  of  these  little  fellows  by  the 
neck  and  holding  him  in  the  ditch  and  listening  to  him  holler  while  I 
held  him  in  the  ditch.  But  as  I  grew  older  I  soon  found  that  I  could  not 
hold  one  of  those  little  fellows  in  the  ditch  without  remaining  right 
down  in  the  ditch  with  him  as  long  as  he  was  in  the  ditch.  In  this 
country  we  are  all  learning.  North  and  South  and  everywhere,  that  one 
man  cannot  hold  another  man  in  the  ditch  without  remaining  in  the 
ditch  with  him.  We  are  all  learning,  thank  God,  that  no  portion  of 
God's  children  can  be  held  down  in  the  ditch  without  the  other  portion 
to  some  degree  remaining  in  the  ditch  with  them. 

The  only  salvation  for  any  of  us,  black  or  white,  is  to  see  to  it  that 
through  Christian  education,  through  Christian  civilization,  all  people 
of  all  races  are  gotten  up  out  of  the  ditch  and  are  able  to  stand  up  and 
exert  themselves  in  the  fear  of  God  to  the  full  degree  of  usefulness. 
We  are  hopeful;  we  are  not  discouraged.  We  are  a  new  race  in  Amer- 
ica, just  forty-eight  years  old;  we  are  thankful  our  future  is  before  us. 
Some  time  ago  I  met  an  old  colored  woman  in  Alabama  on  a  pul)Iic  road 


326  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

and  I  said,  ''Aunt  Eliza,  where  are  you  going?"  She  said,  "I'se  done 
been  where  I'se  goin'."  Some  races  has  done  been  where  they're  go- 
ing and  have  turned  back.  My  race  has  not  been  there;  it  is  on  the 
way,  and  we  thank  you  all,  white  Christians  North  and  South,  through- 
out the  world,  we  thank  you  for  your  help  in  helping  us  to  go  where 
we're  going,  and  we're  on  the  road  there. 

Don't  let  us  fret  ourselves  and  vex  ourselves  overmuch  concerning 
the  little  unimportant  details  as  to  the  solution  of  our  problem,  or  any 
great  world-wide  racial  problem.  Let  us  be  sure  that  the  foundation  is 
right,  that  we  are  working  on  right  principles,  then  leave  the  results  to 
an  all-wise  Providence.  I  had  a  great  lesson  taught  me  in  that  respect 
some  months  ago  by  an  old-fashioned  colored  minister  with  whom  I  was 
traveling  in  South  Carolina.  We  got  to  Columbia  and  this  old  minis- 
ter went  up-town  and  stayed  longer  than  he  should  have  stayed  and 
nearly  lost  his  train.  In  his  haste  to  the  station  he  went  to  the  hack- 
driver  and  said,  ''Take  me  to  the  station  right  away."  The  first  driver 
happened  to  be  a  white  man,  and  he  never  had  the  experience  of  driving 
a  black  man  in  his  hack.  He  said,  "You  better  go  to  a  colored  hack- 
driver,  I  don't  know  how  to  begin."  He  said,  "Boys  we  won't  quarrel 
over  details.  What  I  want  is  to  get  to  the  station.  I'll  help  you  solve 
your  problem.  You  take  the  back  seat  and  do  the  riding  and  I'll  take 
the  front  seat  and  do  the  driving. "  In  a  few  minutes  white  man  and 
black  man  were  at  the  railway  station ;  all  problems  were  solved.  The 
white  man  had  his  quarter  and  the  black  man  got  his  train.  We  are 
going  to  overlook  these  little  vexing,  trying  details  and  we  want  both 
races  to  get  to  the  station. 

We  have  learned  a  great  lesson  in  our  life  in  America.  A  few  cen- 
turies ago  in  the  providence  of  God  we  went  into  slavery  a  piece  of 
property;  we  came  out  of  slavery  American  citizens.  We  went  into 
slavery  without  a  language ;  we  came  out  speaking  the  proud  Anglo- 
Saxon  tongue.  We  went  into  slavery  pagans;  we  came  out  Christians. 
This  indicates  our  progress  within  a  few  centuries.  Thank  God,  with 
your  help,  with  your  encouragement,  we  are  going  to  continue  to  make 
progress  until  we  become  strong,  helpful,  useful.  Christian  citizens 
throughout  this  country.     (Applause.) 

Chair:man  :  We  have  as  the  next  speaker  a  gentleman  who  is  declared 
by  our  brethren  from  the  other  side  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  thinkers 
and  scholars  in  Scotland.  I  will  now  introduce  to  you  Rev.  J.  T.  Forbes, 
of  Scotland,  who  will  speak  on  "Baptist  Polity  and  International 
Brotherhood. ' '      ( Applause. ) 

BAPTIST  POLITY  AND  INTEENATIONAL  BROTHERHOOD. 

By  Rev.  J.  T.  FORBES,  B.  A. 

It  is  common  to  use  words  of  Christian  origin  in  connections  remote 
from  their  source.  To  hear  men  speak  of  comradeship  and  fraternity  is 
impressive ;  but  a  doubt  creeps  over  the  mind  when  it  finds  these  words 


Friday,  Juiif  23.  ]  lilX'ORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  327 

in  Irequenl  use  by  those  wlio  lepiuliaie  the  only  thing  that  can  give  them 
\itality, — the  Christian  laith.  They  who  so  use  language  resemble  the 
men  in  ''Love's  Labor's  Lost";  ''they  have  been  at  a  great  feast  of  lan- 
guages and  stolen  the  scraps"  ....  "they  have  lived  long  ou  the 
alms  basket  of  words."  They  have  gathered  orts  at  Christian  tables. 
But  such  words,  even  as  fragments  of  a  larger  speech,  are  not  to  be 
lightly  used.  They  are  charged  with  a  fulness  of  meaning  beyond  the 
irresponsible  utterance  of  fluent  incredulity. 

The  connection  between  Baptist  Polity  and  International  Brother- 
hood is  seen  to  arise  from  certain  religious  postulates  with  their  ethical 
implications.  Of  these  postulates  we  have  no  monopoly;  tliey  are  the 
heritage  of  Christians;  our  claim  is  to  follow  their  implications  through. 
Our  polity  springs  from  and  is  in  accord  with  such  assertions  as  these: 
Man  is  God's  child;  Our  relationship  to  each  other  is  organic;  Our  pres- 
ent groupings  are  temporary  and  have  only  relative  value.  We  are  God's 
offspring;  we  are  members  one  of  another;  Christ  is  gathering  all  things 
into  one.  Think  of  the  ethical  issues:  the  nature  of  all  men  if  it  is  pro- 
phesied in  the  beginnings  of  things  can  only  be  read  in  the  end ;  not  the 
higliest  by  the  lowest,  but  the  lowest  by  the  highest ;  the  soul  lives  by 
dying;  the  corporate  life  of  humanity  is  as  real  as  the  individual; — such 
thoughts  lead  us  straight  to  International  Brotherhood  as  an 
ideal.  The  law  of  the  inner  life  is  true  to  its  farthest  depths.  The 
soul  of  a  Christian  cannot  know  the  love  of  Christ  as  it  is  to  be  known 
save  he  learn  to  comprehend  "with  all  saints"  that  love,  and  to  know 
thus  Avhat  "passeth  knowledge."  Baptist  Polity  is  not  the  polity  of 
democracy  pure  and  simple.  It  is  the  polity  of  a  spiritually  and  morally 
qualified  democracy:  that  is,  it  is  Theocracy.  It  rests  on  man's  dignity 
as  a  son  of  God,  strayed,  discrowned  when  Christ  finds  him,  but  restored 
in  Him  to  kingship.  It  iiroclaims  the  regality  hidden  or  manifest,  of 
every  man.  He  is  a  potential  king,  just  as  he  is  a  potential  jiriest. 
Sacerdotal  and  regal  functions  belong  actually  to  every  believing  man. 
And,  if  we  can  escape  being  enslaved  to  words,  these  are  the  great  func- 
tions of  human  life,  to  ai^proaeh  God  in  worship,  and  man  in  ministry — 
for  Bible  kingship  means  ministry.  Rule  is  shepherding.  These  were  the 
thoughts  of  our  forefathers  who  were  constrained  bj'  loyalty  to  Christ  as 
Prophet,  Priest,  and  King  to  separate  themselves  from  connections  which 
impeded  the  expression  of  that  loyalty.  A  believing  man  was  his  own 
man  because  he  belonged  to  God.  The  moment  he  came  to  his  Father 
he  came  to  himself  and  because  he  was  not  his  own  he  owned  all  things. 
His  surrender  to  the  highest  made  him  capable  of  rule,  and  because  he 
separated  himself  from  the  crude  self-assertion  of  the  natural  man,  he 
became  the  fit  organ  of  God's  Spii'it.  This  conception  of  the  Divine 
and  human  ministry  of  the  common  man,  his  regality  and  priesthood 
did  find  expression  fully  and  frankly,  in  the  separated  communities  of 
Baptists  and  Friends  for  almost  the  first  time  in  modern  days.  It  was 
their  theology  that  supplied  them  with  tlieir  polity.  Their  conception  of 
man's  right  to  self-government  was  subject  to  their  conception  of  his 
absolute  submission  to  God.  They  found  the  Divine  voice,  not  in  the 
confused  clamor  of  a  mixed  multitude,  but  in  the  language  of  regenerate 
hearts.  Each  man  in  those  little  connnunities  was  seen  in  an  ideal  light 
as  a  child  of  God,  redeemed  by  Christ's  love,  inspired  by  His  Spirit,  ruled 
by  His  law. 

Because  each  stood  in   the  same  relationship  Godward,  each  stood  in 


328  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  relationship  of  brotherhood  to  each.  There  was  no  priestly  class 
because  all  were  priests.  The  separations  that  existed  were  those  of 
superior  excellence  and  recognized  worth.  However  humble  the  begin- 
nings of  the  church  to  which  we  belong,  men  were  really  in  those  sim- 
ple organizations  revealing  principles  of  universal  application,  and  fur- 
nishing suggestions  of  a  new  order  of  life.  This  is  the  heart  of  our 
polity  still.  In  it  we  try  to  see  men  in  their  ideal  standing  as  sons  of 
God  and  brothers  of  Jesus  Christ.  Honor  means  ministry.  Recognized 
grace  and  talent  evidence  a  call  to  office.  Government  is  by  invitation 
and  consent  of  the  governed.  The  voice  of  the  people  is  held  to  be  the 
voice  of  God.  Where  it  is  truly  acted  upon  the  polity  is  that  of  a  spir- 
itual democracy  in  form,  a  government  by  God  in  actuality.  ''One  is 
your  Master,  the  Christ."    ''All  ye  are  brethren." 

The  transition  from  this  conception  to  that  of  International  Brother- 
hood is  easy.  This  is  an  ideal  for  the  world, — not  the  reproduction 
everywhere  of  an  ecclesiastical  form  but  the  passing  to  the  world  through 
the  Church's  testimony  and  service  of  the  treasure  of  the  kingdom. 
Christianity,  of  which  ti"ue  church  polity  is  an  agent,  sees  every  man 
as  a  potential  member  of  this  ideal  kingdom.  All  men  are  to  be  brought 
into  it  who  will.  The  chosen  few  who  anticipate  a  higher  order  of  life 
are  the  agents  to  guide  others  into  that  land  of  desire.  Their  election  is 
election  to  serve.  All  societies  of  the  regenerate  are  means  to  bring  about 
regenerate  society.  Cue  is  meant  to  be  the  prophecy  of  the  other  in  prin- 
ciple and  spirit.  They  are  not  identical.  The  conception  of  the  kingdom 
is  vaster  and  richer.  The  church  is  the  agent  to  establish  the  kingdom, 
and  it  will  ultimately  be  merged  in  it.  Meantime  the  principles  of  the 
government  of  Christ 's  disciples  are  a  trust  for  the  world.  For  spiritual 
humanity  is  normal  humanity;  that  is  Christ's  humanity  for  He  is  the 
norm;  sinful,  warring  humanity  is  diseased,  abnormal.  The  man  who 
has  come  to  Christ,  has  also  come  to  himself.  When  he  enters  his  moual 
kingdom  he  is  no  less  and  no  more  than  God  meant  him  to  be. 

Christ's  religion  has  no  interest  in  any  national  or  political  organiza- 
tion save  in  so  far  as  that  organization  is  an  instrument  of  righteousness. 
Without  Christ  all  forms  of  government  fail.  Some  failures  may  be 
quicker,  more  gross,  more  open,  and  palpable  than  others  but  all  fail. 
Without  Him.  aristocracy  and  democracy  and  the  British  blend  of  both 
will  alike  be  hopeless  to  lead  the  people  to  high  levels  of  life.  The  most 
corrupt  period  in  modern  British  history  was  that  in  which  the  aristoc- 
racy had  unchecked  sway,  (as  Lord  Rosebery's  "Chatham"  shows).  If 
there  be  not  "sufficient  Christian  character  in  a  nation  to  leaven  its  life, 
no  rearrangement  will  do  more  than  stave  off  ultimate  defeat.  On  no 
plane  is  hope  to  be  found  without  regeneration.  Aristocracy  and  autoc- 
racy without  God  have  alike  been  failures.  So  has  democracy,  and  so 
will  it  be,  without  Him.  Christ  and  Christ  alone  is,  by  moral  right,  the 
Ruler  of  the  Nations. 

This  means  that  our  attitude  to  others  must  be  decided  by  the  Christian 
view  of  our  origin,  connection,  and  destiny.  We  must  see  men  in  their 
ideal  relationships  as  actual  or  potential  men  in  Christ.  Thus  the  basis 
of  International  Brotherhood  is  existing  fact.  Men  are  brothers  whether 
they  recognize  it  or  not.  They  are  sons  of  God,  lost,  wandering  if  you 
will,  but  sons.  Wliere  there  is  humanity  there  must  in  the  end  be  active 
fraternity.  Christianity  is  not  a  national  but  a  cosmopolitan  system.  It 
is  useless  as  well  as  Avrong  to  attempt  to  involve  it  in  forms  of  Nation- 


Friday,  June  23.  J  UEVORD  OF  PROVE EDiyGH.  329 

alism.  This  is  to  yoke  the  gospel  car  in  the  rear  of  the  eliariot  of  State 
or  even  of  War.  The  Spirit  of  God  refuses  to  be  so  bound.  Christ  does 
not  aim  at  covering  the  earth  with  British  or  American  or  German  types 
of  Christians  even,  but  at  making  a  new  man,  the  specific  type,  that  bears 
tlie  image  and  superscription  of  His  grace,  in  and  through  all  national 
distinctness. 

Acceptance  of  the  underlying  principles  of  Baptist  polity  involves  this : 
that  certain  conceptions  of  life  and  government  follow  the  acceptance 
of  New  Testament  Christianity.  Religion  can  live  and  do  its  work  under 
hostile  conditions,  but  its  constant  effort  is  to  harmonize  them  itself. 
Tlie  kingdom  of  God  in  society  is  analogous  to  grace  in  the  individual 
heart :  it  is  leaven.  Thus  if  you  have  a  conception  of  a  man  who  is  in 
his  Godward  relationship  a  king  and  a  priest,  a  self-ruling  free  servant, 
lord  of  himself  and  God 's  minister,  it  is  not  consistent  with  that  concep- 
tion that  the  man  should  be  kept  under  forms  of  government  which  hold 
him  in  a  position  of  virtual  serfdom.  In  the  Baptist  churches  such  a 
man  learns  to  exercise  ruling  functions,  that  is,  he  is  part  there  of  a  free 
State  under  law  to  Christ.  He  exercises  through  such  channels  as  are 
open  to  him  his  powers  of  speech  and  personal  influence;  his  rights 
through  his  church  suffrage.  "If  the  world  is  judged  by  you  are  ye  un- 
worthy to  judge  the  smallest  matters'?"  The  man's  Christian  standing 
involves  us  in  a  certain  conception  of  an  appropriate  earthly  standing. 
The  citizen  of  heaven  must  have  his  weight  as  a  citizen  of  earth  if  he 
is  to  do  his  part  in  the  leavening  work  of  the  kingdom.  We  cannot  move 
in  the  region  of  these  ideas  long  w'ithout  conceiving  of  International 
Brotherhood  as  the  ideal  grouping  of  men.  Of  this  Mazzini  said:  "It  is 
beyond  us  and  supreme  over  us:  it  is  not  the  creation  but  the  o-radual 
discovery  of  the  human  intellect."  The  spirit  points  to  a  larger  unity 
than  the  national;  is  including  within  itself  a  fuller  variety.  There  was 
a  time  when  there  was  no  unity  larger  than  kinship.  A  time  again 
under  tribal  rule  when  nationality  meant  little.  It  meant  little  under 
Imperial  Rome.  And  now  after  influencing  men  for  long,  continuously 
and  intensely,  the  idea  is  already  feeling  the  impact  of  a  wider  prin- 
ciple. In  ever>-thing  that  rises  above  the  fleshly  and  material  level  of 
life,  groupings  are  created  by  sympathies  and  affinities. 

Education  forms  a  new  order  from  which  ignorance  is  excluded,  not 
by  caste  but  by  the  nature  of  things.  Into  that  society  no  sympathy  on 
the  part  of  the  members  can  admit  the  ignorant,  if  it  be  unaccompanied 
by  their  own  enlightenment.  The  Royal  Society  of  London  is  an  infi- 
nitely more  exclusive  body  than  the  British  aristocracy.  The  kingdom 
of  art  transcends  nationality.  The  study  of  the  works  of  Constable  the 
Englishman  revolutionized  French  art;  and  the  work  of  the  French  ar- 
tist Manet  was  the  beginning  of  British  Impressionism.  And  on  an  an- 
alogous principle  new  groupings  are  formed  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  In 
and  through,  beneath  and  above  the  natural  and  national  relationships 
of  men  Christ  shows  us  the  kingdom  creating  a  new  and  higher  relation- 
ship, which  submerges  all  others.  In  finding'  the  kingdom,  men  find  new 
fathers  and  mothers  and  sisters  and  brothers,  as  well  as  persecutions 
and  eternal  life.  Applied  to  the  grouping  of  the  peoples  it  will  mean 
the  drawing  of  them  into  new  unities,  accordimr  to  their  advancement 
and  the  degree  of  their  higher  life.  It  will  mean  the  recognition  of  the 
obliiration  of  the  member  to  live  for  the  body,  of  the  nation  to  live  for 
the  world,  of  the  rulers  to  use  national  resources  for  tlie  promotion  of 


330  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  interests  of  more  backward  races  and  of  mankind  as  a  whole.  The 
materialistically  minded  will  sneer;  the  inheritor  of  policies  of  blood  and 
iron  will  prophesy  that  treaties  based  on  snch  principles  will  be  like 
tinder  in  the  heats  of  national  jealousies ;  but  the  student  of  history  wdll 
take  heart;  he  will  remember  that  three  centuries  ago  Elizabeth's  gen- 
erals could  slaughter  prisoners  in  cold  blood ;  that  one  hundred  j-ears 
ago,  the  capture  of  cities  after  siege  meant  more  than  once  even  under 
the  stern  discipline  of  Wellington  a  three-days'  carnival  of  lust  and  mur- 
der; that  a  dozen  j-ears  ago  it  was  considered  good  policy  to  desecrate  the 
tomb  of  a  dead  leader  and  even  later  to  burn  men's  homes  with  the 
fatuous  idea  that  when  3'ou  had  made  war  a  man's  only  resource  it  would 
be  easier  to  conquer  him.  Remembering  these  things,  Christian  men  are 
not  disheartened.  We  rejoice  in  the  splendid  action  of  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  in  seeking  to  frame  a  Treaty  of  Arbitration,  and  ear- 
nestly desire  the  ratification  of  what  may  be  a  mighty  instrument  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  We  are  not  dismayed  at  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  met  with  in  extending  the  operation  of  the  spirit  shown  by 
these  two  great  peoples  in  their  mutual  relationships  to  their  relation- 
ships with  other  lands.  We  know  that  as  Westcott  said:  "Every  great 
reform  was  once  incredible"  and  that  ''the  church  lives  by  attempting 
and  by  doing  what  seemed  to  be  impossible." 

It  all  means  that  for  men  who  profess  to  love  God  it  is  impossible  to 
separate  love  to  the  Father  from  love  to  the  child.  Thomas  Hill  Green 
said  that  during  the  whole  development  of  man  the  command  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  has  never  varied.  What  has  varied, 
Kidd  says  is  only  the  answer  to  the  question — Who  is  my  neighbor?  In- 
ternational Brotherhood  tries  to  supply  an  answer.  It  is  not  your  kins- 
man, your  clansman,  your  countryman;  it  is  the  stunted  and  dwarfed 
life,  the  thwarted  life  whether  of  community  or  man;  it  is  the  soul  that 
needs  calling  to  the  soul  that  loves.  Life  moves  in  a  spiral  ascent  of  low 
gradient.  Thew  and  muscle  are  honored  when  the  struggle  is  physical. 
Brain  power  grasps  the  lead  when  it  is  mind  against  mind.  It  can  do 
nothing  to  moralize  the  fight.  But  within  the  very  centre  of  the  process 
is  the  power  of  God  who  is  making  not  force  nor  cleverness  but  right- 
eousness and  truth  spring  forth  before  all  the  nations ;  and  so  lead  and 
honor  pass  to  soul.  Reason  comes  to  be  substituted  for  force,  but  it  is 
reason  suffused  by  moral  passion ;  reason  with  the  only  safe  bias,  the 
love  of  truth.  And  before  the  power  uttering  itself  in  the  efforts  of 
Christ's  people  mountains  will  give  way.  In  the  old  days  of  fight,  Smith 
Williams  shows,  physical  inequalities  were  levelled  down  by  gunpowder; 
and  intellectual  depressions  raised  by  printing;  the  compass  gave  men 
new  worlds  and  trade  new  wealth,  and  so  a  more  expansive  life  be- 
came possible.  But  to-day  the  constraint  of  God's  Spirit  is  showing 
men  the  love  at  heart  of  things,  and  seeking  their  co-operation.  If  we 
are  members  one  of  another,  then  in  the  last  resort  nothing  is  done  for  a 
part  that  does  not  bless  the  whole;  and  in  the  long  process  by  which  the 
world  travels  towards  the  fuller  execution  of  God's  purpose,  it  is  seen 
that  the  very  principles  that  conflict  with  conflict  are  but  the  fuller  un- 
folding of  the  prophecy  present  from  the  beginning. 

In  furthering  ends  of  peace  we  m.ust  further  them  in  Christ's  way. 
Internationalism  does  not  mean  an  obtuse  attempt  to  secure  a  uniform- 
ity that  ignores  God's  gift  in  the  separate  developments  of  the  nations. 
It  regards  each  life  as  not  a  numerical  addition  onlv  to  its  neighbor  but 


Friday,  June  23.]  RECORD  OF  FliOCEEDINOS.  331 

as  a  complement.  For  uniformities  of  force,  and  of  external  authority, 
the  kingdom  of  God  which  seeks  to  realize  itself  through  loyalty  to 
Christ  will  substitute  the  varieties  of  national  ways  of  life  and  service 
through  which  God  fulfils  Himself. 

We  have  some  advantages  in  furthering  this  movement.  We  have 
'  not  localized  Christianity  in  a  national  church,  or  materialized  it  in  Sac- 
raments; or  officialized  it  in  priests.  The  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  the 
Lord  of  gloi'v  knows  no  boundaries.  From  it  will  spring  everywhere 
the  individual  consciousness  of  man's  true  connection  with  his  Saviour 
and  his  lellows,  out  of  which  arises  the  inevitable  movement  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  all  by  all  in  the  interests  of  all.  And  this  itself  will  be  used 
by  God  to  advance  His  reign  until  the  day  comes  when  men  need  no 
other  law  but  that  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  which  frees 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

(Applause.) 

The  session  adjourned  with  the  singing  of  the  Doxology  and  with  the 
benediction  by  Dr.  Clifford. 


332  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


ELEVENTH   SESSION 


Saturday  Morning,  June  24,  1911. 

Session  opened  at  9.30  A.  M.,  with  devotional  exercises  led  by  Rev.  T, 
B.  Ray,  D.  D.,  Educational  Secretary  for  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention. 

Hymn,  ''I  Love  to  Tell  the  Story." 

Scripture  reading,  beginning  at  Mark  8 :  27. 

Prayer  by  Dr.  Ray. 

Hymn,  '^ Majestic  Sweetness  Sits  Enthroned." 

Special  chairman  for  the  session.  Rev.  W.  T.  Whitley. 

Dr.  Prestridge  presented  the  following  telegrams  to  the  Alliance : 

''Campos,  June  22,  1911. 
''Brazilian  Convention  greetings.   Invite  1916  Rio  Janerio.  Paranagua, 
President. ' ' 

"Helsingfors,  June  2.3,  1911. 
"Hearty  greetings.  Eph.  4:  5.    Swedish  Baptist  Conference.    Finland. 
Oesterman  Sundell  Staahl." 

The  Chairman:  Dr.  Lathan  Crandall  will  present  the  report  of  the 
Committee  on  Changes  in  the  Constitution. 

Dr.  Crandall  :  A  very  few  changes  have  been  made  by  your  committee. 

SUGGESTED  AMENDMENT  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  BAPTIST 
WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

All  articles  not  here  reproduced  (marked  by  italics)  remaining  un- 
changed. 

2.  Membership:  Any  general  Union,  Convention,  or  Association  of 
Baptist  churches,  or  Conference  of  Native  churches  and  missionaries  or  gen- 
eral Foreign  Missionary  Society,  shall  be  eligible  for  membership  in  the 
Alliance. 

3.  Officers:  The  officers  of  the  Alliance  shall  be — a  President,  a  Deputy 
President,  a  Vice-President  from  each  country  represented  in  the  Alliance,  a 
European  Treasurer,  an  American  Treasurer,  a  European  Secretary  and  an 
American  Secretary.  The  European  Secretary  shall  deal  with  everything  in 
the  Eastern  Hem^isphere. 

4.  The  Executive  Committee:  The  Executive  Committee  shall  consist 
of  the  President,  the  Deputy  Presiident,  the  Treasurer,  the  Secretaries,  and 
twenty-*tco  other  members,  all  of  whom,  together  with  the  officers,  shall  be 
elected  at  each  General  meeting  of  the  Alliance,  and  enter  on  office  at  the 
close  of  each  meeting.  Tfie  Deputy  President  shall  6e  appointed  by  the 
President  on  the  nomination  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  shall  he  chosen 
from  the  hemisphere  in  which  the  President  does  not  reside.  Of  the  twenty- 
two  elected  members,  fiA'e  shall  be  from  Great  Britain,  seven  shall  be  from 
the  United  States  of  America;  two  shall  be  from  Canada,  and  the  remain- 
ing eight  shall  be  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 


Saturday,  June  24.]        RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  333 

Meetings  of  the  Executive  shall  he  summoned  by  both  Secretaries.  Five 
members  shall  constitute  a  quorum,  etc.  (For  last  sentence  substitute)  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Alliance,  it  shall  be  the  first  business  of  the  Executive  to 
select  a  commj,ttee  for  the  nomination  of  officers,  ivhich  committee  shall  be 
appointed  by  the  President  in  open  meeting. 

By-Laws. 

2.  (a)  That  the  Program  for  each  World  Alliance  shall  be  printed  at 
least  two  years  in  advance,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Secretary  for  tJie  hemis- 
phere in  ivhich  the  Congress  is  being  held,  in  consultation  with  the  members 
of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  Executive  Committee  resident  in  the  same 
hemisphere. 

(c)    (Substitute  hemisphere  for  country.) 

8.  That  the  clerical  and  other  expenses  incurred  by  each  Union  or  Con- 
vention in  flie  transaction  of  Alliance  business  shall  be  borne  by  itself. 

Upon  the  chairman  calling  for  discussion, 

Rev.  Howard  Wayne  Smith  asks  for  a  definition  of  the  word  "Amer- 
ica" as  it  occurs  in  the  second  paragraph. 

Dr.  Crandall:  We  mean  the  Western  Hemisphere. 

The  statement  was  accordingly  revised  in  paragraph  3  so  as  to  read : 
"The  European  Secretary  shall  deal  with  everything  in  the  Eastern 
Hemisphere. ' ' 

A  Delegate:  How  far  would  the  term  "General  Foreign  Mission  So- 
ciety" go? 

Dr.  Crandall:  It  would  go  as  far  as  the  State  Society,  not  including 
district  organizations. 

A  Delegate  :  Would  it  include  a  Home  Mission  Society  ? 

Dr.  Crandall  :  No,  it  is  not  so  understood.  The  elections  have  already 
taken  place  but  by  our  action  it  becomes  necessarj^  to  elect  a  fifth  mem- 
ber of  the  European  Executive  Committee  in  place  of  Mr.  Herbert  Mam- 
ham  who  has  been  selected  as  European  Treasurer.  It  is  also  necessary 
to  elect  one  to  the  Executive  Committee.  We  recommend  that  Dr.  F.  B. 
Meyer  be  elected  a  member  of  the  European  Executive  Committee  in  place 
of  Mr.  Marnham  and  that  Rev.  Joseph  Clark,  of  the  Congo,  be  made  the 
twenty-second  member  of  the  Executive  Committee. 

This  recommendation  was  received  and  adopted  enthusiastically. 

Dr.  Crandall  announced  that  the  following  had  been  appointed  to  the 
Executive  Committee  by  their  respective  countries:  South  Africa,  T.  B. 
King;  Lettish  Baptist  Union,  J.  A,  Fry;  Russian  Baptist  Union,  Pastor 
Golayeff;  Norway,  Rev.  J.  A.  Ohm, 

Dr.  S.  Z.  Batten  presented  the  following  resolution,  and  moved  its 
adoption : 

RESOLUTION  ON  SOCIAL  PROGRESS. 

Whereas,  We  hail  with  joy  the  fact  that  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  is 
giving  such  a  large  place  to  the  social  aspect  of  the  gospel  and  the  duty 
of  Christian  people  to  human  society;  and 


334  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Whereas,  There  is  a  growing  conviction  that  Christianity  is  to  domi- 
nate human  life  in  all  its  relations,  that  it  is  Christ's  purpose  to  bring 
the  blessings  of  the  kingdom  into  the  life  of  all  men  and  that  it  is  man's 
duty  to  apply  Christian  principles  to  existing  conditions  in  human  so- 
ciety, and 

Whereas,  There  are  many  moral  evils  international  in  their  scope 
which  are  delaying  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  and  casting  a  blight  over 
the  peoples  of  the  earth,  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  a  Committee  on  Social  Progress  of  fifteen  be  appointed 
to  memorialize  other  religious  bodies  of  the  world  to  appoint  similar  com- 
mittees who  shall  confer  together  and  endeavor  to  secure  such  concerted 
action  as  shall  restroy  these  evils  and  make  the  impact  of  Christendom 
upon  the  nations  of  earth  more  helpful.  This  committee  shall  also  study 
the  further  duty  of  the  church  to  society  and  shall  suggest  ways  wherebj' 
Jesus  Christ  may  become  a  fact  in  the  social  life  of  the  world. 

Dr.  Prestridge:  I  know  the  names  signed  to  that  resolution  are  all 
right.     (See  page  xvi.) 

We  have  a  Committee  on  Resolutions  to  look  over  matters  of  that  kind 
and  to  endorse  them.  They  could  report  in  half  an  hour.  I  would  like  to 
see  that  reported,  so  that  we  can  catch  our  breath  as  to  how  much  is  in- 
volved, as  to  expense  or  need  of  a  secretary.  I  move  it  be  reported  to  the 
Committee  on  Resolvitions,  and  that  they  report  to  us  in  half  an  hour. 

The  resolution  was  accordingly  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Resolu- 
tions. 

The  Chairman  then  spoke  as  follows: 


BAPTISTS  AND  EDUCATION. 
By  Dr.  WHITLEY. 

There  is  a  dignity  and  importance  in  the  subject  of  Education  which 
merits  for  it  this  place  in  our  proceedings,  when  interest  rises  towards 
a  climax.  Dramatic  display  is  needless  here,  for  the  duty  of  educating 
is  familiar  to  all  dwelling  in  the  Great  Republic,  whose  banner  waves 
daily  over  so  many  thousand  schools.  Our  purpose  now  is  to  consider 
thoughtfully  what  attitude  Baptists  assume  towards  Education;  whether 
we  as  a  denomination  fulfil  our  duty  adequately,  whether  those  who  are 
rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith  are  ready  to  aid  these  who  are  just  find- 
ing a  foothold,  and  are  looking  around  for  guidance. 

Ulance  at  our  traditions  in  this  matter.  If  we  look  back  to  the  dawn 
of  Christianity,  those  bright  apostolic  days  whose  glories  we  rejoice  in, 
and  whose  enthusiasm  we  share,  we  find  there  that  the  very  constitution 
of  the  church  lays  upon  us  a  mighty  charge :  as  soon  as  disciples  have 
been  won  and  baptised,  they  are  to  be  taught  all  the  will  of  our  Lord. 
Education  then  is  a  duty  incumbent  upon  us;  and  not  any  sort  of  edu- 
cation, but  a  distinctly  Christian  education. 

This  year  we  celebrate  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  two  great 


yatuiday,  June  24. J        RECORD  OF  RROL'EEDIXGS.  335 

events:  the  publication  ui'  tlie  Koyal  Version  of  IGll,  and  the  foundation 
of  the  modern  Baptist  denouiination.  These  events  betoken  that  the 
Common  Man  was  risini;'  ayain,  conscious  of  himself,  his  rights  and  his 
duties  to  God.  The  Bible  inspires  to  freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of  ac- 
tion:  he  Avho  reads  therein  and  tlnds  that  the  soul  is  competent  before 
God,  will  tear  little  the  lace  of  man. 

That  was  the  time  when  a  plain  John  Smith  could  found  a  new  de- 
nomination; within  a  generation  ordinary  men  like  Kobert  Lilburne  and 
Thomas  Harrison  could  become  commanders-in-chief  for  Scotland  and 
England;  a  reporter  in  the  courts  like  Roger  Williams  could  found  a 
new  colony  and  teach  a  new  world  something  as  to  liberty  of  conscience ; 
a  scrivener's  son  like  John  Milton  could  receive  the  highest  culture  of 
England  and  Italy,  could  render  to  the  State  service  in  her  foreign  rela- 
tions, could  immortalize  his  name  in  singing  of  Paradise  Lost  and  Re- 
gained. 

If  this  was  the  time  when  new  careers  opened  to  men,  it  was  also  the 
time  when  the  Common  Man  was  being  equipped  for  anj-  career.  Educa- 
tion had  been  wrecked  in  England  during  the  sixteenth  century  and  the 
survivors  who  had  floated  ashore  on  broken  pieces  had  been  of  the  wealthy 
people;  the  ''petty  schools"  were  gone,  while  grammar  schools  and  uni- 
versities were  the  preserves  of  the  upper  classes.  But  the  Common  Man 
objected  to  being  depressed,  and  the  seventeenth  century  gave  him  his  op- 
portunity. In  New  England,  he  seized  it  with  both  hands :  hardly  had  the 
settlers  felt  themselves  surely  established,  when  they  began  the  work  of 
popular  education.  No  superstitious  deference  to  one  class,  but  a  general 
regard  for  the  whole  community  actuated  them.  And  successful  beyond 
their  dreams  was  their  work;  the  college  at  Cambridge  not  only  produced 
scholars  and  Christians,  study  of  the  New  Testament  even  showed  Presi- 
dent Dunster  that  he  must  become  a  Baptist.  Then  in  generous  and 
Christian  recompense  of  the  local  intolerance,  it  was  a  Baptist  family 
in  England,  the  Hollises,  who  further  endowed  Harvai-d. 

In  the  mother  country,  the  path  was  less  easy  to  tread;  but  one  Puri- 
tan, John  Alleine,  sketched  out  a  plan  of  Sunday-schools  which  was  only 
choked  by  political  strife;  it  was  a  solitary  Baptist,  John  Milton,  whose 
Tractate  on  Education  set  men  thinking  on  the  true  aims  and  the  best 
methods  to  attain  them.  And  according  to  their  means.  Baptists  took  the 
utmost  share  the  law  would  permit  them,  in  founding  and  maintaining 
schools  for  the  masses. 

"We  from  across  the  Atlantic  have  too  often  to  wrestle  with  those  who 
in  the  pursuit  of  their  own  ideals,  hamper  the  free  course  of  education. 
We  look  with  joy  on  the  way  in  which  you  here,  nntrammeled  by  tlie  dead 
hand  of  the  past,  have  nobly  met  the  needs  of  your  children.  We  recall 
with  pride  that  our  fathers  were  privileged  to  join  with  yours  in  estab- 
lishing the  Rhode  Island  College,  which  has  grown  into  Brown  University. 
We  remember  that  it  was  a  Kentish  family  of  Baptists,  the  Colgates,  who 
saw  to  the  needs  of  northern  New  York.  We  admire  your  net-work  of 
schools,  academies,  colleges,  and  your  great  Education  Societies  to  co- 
ordinate these  in  various  States.  We  are  proud  of  your  Vassar,  your 
Chicago,  your  Louisville,  to  mention  only  one  each  of  the  great  institu- 
tions which  testify  to  the  care  of  Baptists  foi  women,  for  men  and  wo- 
men, for  men  and  women  aiming  at  the  liighest  of  all  callings,  the  ser- 
vice of  God. 

In  such   centres  of  life  and   thought,  we  see  a  noble  denominational 


336  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

contribution  to  the  canse  of  Education.  Men  of  religion  have  ever  seen 
their  opportunity  here  and  well  has  the  world  profited  thereb3^  Mission- 
aries have  usually  begun  by  gathering  the  young;  schools  and  churches 
have  been  built  as  one  set  of  premises.  And  what  was  true  when  Co- 
lumba  worked  at  lona,  when  Augustine  taught  at  Canterbury,  when 
Carey  and  Judson  in  the  Far  East  sought  to  win  the  children,  is  true 
still  in  our  home  lands.  Every  generation  has  to  be  claimed  for  Christ, 
and  trained  in  His  ways.  A  school  where  religion  is  ignored,  is  an  in- 
stitution of  very  doubtful  value.  A  child  who  grows  up  merely  clever, 
may  devote  his  cleverness  to  the  service  of  mammon,  or  even  of  the 
devil,  and  not  dream  of  consecrating  it  to  the  service  of  God.  Once  was 
that  experiment  tried  on  a  great  scale  in  France  when  the  teachings  of 
Rousseau  became  so  popular;  and  Carlyle  traced  to  these  the  excesses 
of  the  Revolution  in  his  savage  epigram  that.  One  generation  of  nobles 
applauded  the  Emile;  the  last  edition  of  that  work  was  bound  in  the 
skins  flayed  from  their  children. 

Education  is  equipping  the  next  generation  in  accordance  with  our 
ideals  of  life;  a  Christian  has  Christian  ideals,  and  is  bound 
to  exalt  them  in  his  dealing  with  the  young.  Whether  the 
chief  channel  should  be  the  family,  the  Sunday-school,  the  common 
school,  the  denominational  school,  is  a  minor  question,  to  receive  answers 
differing  for  various  times  and  places;  but  that  we  owe  it  to  our  children 
to  train  them  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  is  an  elementary 
Christian  truth. 

There  are  few  problems  of  more  pressing  interest  for  us  just  now. 
Southeastern  Europe  is  seething  with  religious  revival,  and  in  every  one 
of  its  States  there  are  arising  Baptists,  created  by  God  through  the  old 
method — the  implanting  of  the  word.  They  look  to  us  for  guidance, 
which  they  have  every  right  to  expect.  It  is  our  duty,  expressly  laid  on 
us  by  our  Head,  to  teach  them  all  His  ways.  The  story  of  the  past  shows 
us  how  easy  it  is  for  novices  to  miss  their  way,  to  confound  the  tem- 
porary for  the  permanent,  to  mistake  the  accidental  for  the  essential,  till 
new  denominations  may  be  formed  on  such  points  as  whether  clothes  are 
to  be  fastened  with  hooks  and  ej'es  or  with  buttons.  To  us  is  offered  the 
great  opportunity  of  educating  these  who  are  pressing  into  the  fold,  of 
showing  them  the  straight  path,  of  equipping  their  noblest  sons  to  guide 
the  flocks  aright.  Self-help  is  a  great  discipline,  but  is  too  hard  for 
many;  therefore,  God  gave  to  His  Church  men  who  should  be  not  only 
pastors,  but  teachers :  and  the  New  Testament  abounds  in  emphasizing 
what  we  owe  to  each  rising  generation.  The  only  apostolic  succession 
recommended  is  not  one  of  government,  but  of  education;  ''The  things 
which  thou  hast  heard  from  me  among  many  witnesses,  the  same  commit 
thou  to  faithful  men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also." 

Profiting  by  what  our  ancestors  have  done  for  us,  entering  into  their 
heritage,  let  iis  see  that  we  increase  it  and  transmit  to  our  successors, 
that  they  may  be  men  of  God,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works, 

(Applause.) 

Dr.  Crakdall:  The  Committee  on  Resolutions  recommends  for  favor- 
able action  the  resolution  submitted  by  Dr.  Batten  with  this  addendum : 
"This  action  shall  not  involve  the  Alliance  in  any  expense." 

The  recommendation  was  accordingly  adopted. 


Saturday,  June  24.]        REVOKD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  337 

Rev.  H.  T.  Musselman  then  presented  the  following  address: 

THE  CHURCH  AND  EDUCATION  THROUGH  THE  SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL. 

By  H.  T.  MUSSELMAN, 

Educational   Secretary  American   Baptist   Publication   Society. 

Education  in  the  highest  and  broadest  sense  is  that  process  whereby 
one  is  made  to  feel  at  home  in  God's  world.  This  means,  first,  instruction 
in  the  knowledge  of  one's  total  environment,  and,  secondly,  the  training 
of  one  to  adapt  himself  to  this  environment  and  to  control  it  in  such  ways 
as  to  make  for  the  enlargement  of  human  personality.  As  to  instruc- 
tion, it  means  the  impartation  of  knowledge  about  the  physical  sciences, 
such  as  geology,  physics,  astronomy,  etc. ;  the  biological  sciences,  such  as 
botany,  zoology,  physiology,  and  psychology;  the  sociological  sciences, 
such  as  economics,  government,  ethics,  and  sociology  proper.  It  means 
also  the  impartation  of  knowledge  as  to  what  man  has  wrought  and 
thought  through  the  ages — the  study  of  history,  literature,  and  philoso- 
phy. And  further,  it  means  the  impartation  of  knowledge  about  man's 
relation  to  the  great  unseen  power  back  of  all — the  religious  aspects  of 
man.  As  to  training,  education  means  the  cultivation  of  right  attitudes 
toward  the  world  through  the  j^roper  development  of  the  emotions,  and 
the  formation  of  right  habits  of  conduct  and  service  through  the  training 
of  the  will.  Both  the  instruction  and  the  training  are  with  a  view  to  the 
adjustment  of  one 's  life  to  its  environment  and  the  changing  of  that  en- 
vironment so  as  to  make  for  progress  and  human  betterment.  Educa- 
tion is  thus  a  unitary  process.  It  is  a  unitary  process  because  it  is  a  life 
process. 

Religious  education,  in  which  the  church  is  chiefly  interested,  is  an 
integral  part  of  the  educational  process  and  not  something  apart  and 
separate  to  be  performed  out  of  connection  with  the  principles  and 
methods  of  education  in  general.  Hence  any  system  of  education  which 
leaves  out  God  and  religion  is  defective  because  it  leaves  out  the  chief 
part  of  one's  higher  environment  and  dooms  the  developed  soul,  if  you 
please,  to  a  life  of  hunger  and  loneliness.  Only  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  in  harmony  with  His  will  can  one  feel  at  home  in  this  world. 

What  now  has  the  church  to  do  with  education?  We  answer,  much 
every  way.  There  are  those  who  think  that  the  church  should  control 
all  educational  work.  Historically  this  view  is  vei'y  strong.  Time  was 
when  religion  or  the  church  dominated  the  educational  activities.  We 
see  remnants  of  this  in  all  the  European  countries  and  in  the  parochial 
schools  and  other  church  schools  in  our  owm  country.  In  my  judgment 
this  view  is  false.  Education  is  bigger  than  the  church  and  bigger  even 
than  religion.  As  President  Butler  points  out,  the  process  includes  the 
scientific,  literary,  aesthetic,  and  institutional  aspects  of  one's  life  as 
well  as  the  religious.  To  give  the  church  power  to  control  in  all  these 
lines  would  be  exceedingly  unwise,  for  as  is  plainly  shown  by  history 
and  experience,  when  one  institution  or  agency  is  given  absolute  power 
it  soon  comes  to  pass  that  it  uses  this  power  for  the  preservation  of  its 
own   forms  and  ideals  rather  than  for  tlie  de\-«trmeni  of  the  persons 


338  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

for  whom  the  institution  was  originally  created.  And  this  is  just  what 
history  shows  that  the  church  did  when  it  was  in  absolute  control  of 
the  educational  activities.  The  rise  of  secular  or  State  educational  sys- 
tems was  to  a  large  extent  a  reaction  against  this  abuse  of  power  on  the 
part  of  the  church.  In  our  judgment  the  public  school  system,  the  State 
colleges  and  universities,  is  of  God.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if 
the  church  in  its  educational  work  is  simply  to  develop  theologians  and 
ecclesiastics  or  churchmen,  it  were  better  to  turn  the  whole  work  of  edu- 
cation over  to  the  State  and  enact  laws  to  keep  the  church's  hands  off 
education  forever.  Better  a  so-called  Godless  education  in  our  public 
schools  seeking  to  develop  cosmopolitan  sympathies  and  citizenship 
than  a  religious  education  in  church  schools  dominated  by  unchanging 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  systems,  thus  paralyzing  all  human  prog- 
ress. 

If  then  it  would  be  unwise  for  the  church  to  control  the  great  work 
of  education  as  a  whole,  what  part  or  lot  has  the  church  in  this  work? 
We  answer  again,  much  every  way.  The  church  has  both  an  indirect 
and  a  direct  part  in  our  modern  educational  work.  As  to  its  indirect 
work  we  would  mention  a  few  things  it  can  wisely  do : 

1.  First  and  foremost,  the  church  should  recognize  and  appreciate 
the  value  of  our  public  educational  system.  I  say  this  unhesitatingly, 
notwithstanding  the  defects  in  this  system.  America's  place  as  one  of 
the  leading  nations  of  the  world  is  undoubtedly  due  to  our  great  public 
educational  system.  No  greater  curse  could  come  to  any  land  than  to 
abolish  the  public  educational  system  and  substitute  in  the  place  of  it  an 
ecclesiastical  system  of  parochial  schools  of  various  religious  bodies. 
Any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  educational  systems  of  European 
countries  will  appreciate  the  truth  of  this  statement.  The  church  then 
should,  first  and  foremost,  recognize  and  respect  the  divine  right  of  our ' 
public  educational  work. 

2.  Secondly,  the  church  should  recognize  and  respect  the  rights  of 
the  scientific  method  in  our  modern  educational  work.  The  principles 
and  methods  dominating  modern  educational  processes  are  not  based 
upon  human  prejudice  and  fancy  but  are  based  on  the  laws  of  life  as 
God  has  made  it.  Psychology  and  pedagogy  are  as  divine  in  the  school 
as  are  homiletics  and  hermeneutics  in  the  church  and  certainly  truer  to 
the  ways  of  our  common  life.  Instead  of  fighting  a  losing  fight  against 
the  right  of  scientific  instruction  and  of  scientific  method,  the  church 
should  rejoice  in  our  splendid  scientific  achievements.  Already  she  is 
losing  too  many  of  our  college  and  university  men  and  that  not  because 
these  men  do  not  desire  religion  but  because  of  that  spirit  in  her  which 
refuses  to  recognize  the  signs  of  the  times  in  these  respects. 

3.  Thirdly,  the  church  should  appreciate  the  place  and  value  of  the 
home  in  education,  especially  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  religious 
education  of  children.  As  this  topic  is  to  be  discussed  by  the  next 
speaker  we  forbear  saying  anything  more  on  it. 

4.  Fourthly,  the  church  should  seek  to  inspire  the  educational  forces 
of  our  country  with  the  religious  ideal  and  if  you  please  to  inspire  the 
religious  forces  of  our  country  with  the  educational  ideal.  This  is  the 
principal  purpose  of  the  work  of  the  Religious  Education  Association  in 
America  and  that  organization  is  performing  a  mighty  task  by  keeping 
before  the  public  mind  these  two  ideals  in  education  and  religion. 

All  that  has  been  said  so  far  about  education  in  general  and  about  the 


Salunhiy.  .luiic  1^4.1        RECORD  OF  I'Jk'OCinJDIXas.  339 

indirect  Avork  ol  llie  cluu'ch  in  education  has  been  said  in  order  that  we 
ma}'  speak  with  clearness  of  the  direct  educational  work  of  the  church. 
This  work  lies  partl}^  within  the  church  itself  and  partly  without.  Our 
subject  calls  only  lor  a  discussion  of  this  work  within  the  church  itself, 
that  is,  through  the  Sunday-scliool,  or  better,  the  school  of  the  church. 

What,  then,  is  the  educational  work  of  the  church  through  the  Sun- 
day-school? The  answer  is  plain;  the  special  work  of  the  Sunday- 
school  is  education  in  the  things  of  God  and  religion — it  is  religious  edu- 
cation. Eeligious  education  from  the  Christian  standpoint  means,  first, 
the  impartation  of  a  biblical  and  Christian  view  of  the  world,  of  life, 
of  duty,  and  of  God ;  secondly,  the  cultivation  of  religious  attitudes  to- 
ward the  world,  life,  and  God;  and  thirdly,  the  practical  training  of 
people  for  the  religious  activities  and  services  of  life.  Stated  in  other 
words,  it  is  the  church  at  work  studying  and  teaching  the  truths  of  God 
with  a  view  of  bringing  childhood,  youth,  and  manhood  into  harmony 
with  the  will  and  purposes  of  God  through  the  acceptance  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord  of  life.  In  this  educational  work,  the 
church-school  supplements  the  so-called  secular  schools  by  looking  after 
the  religious  aspects  of  education ;  and  in  our  judgment,  this  is  the  big- 
gest task  before  the  church  of  God  to-day.  Gradually  the  church  is  com- 
ing to  realize  this  fact.  The  educational  ideal  is  reasserting  itself  in  its 
ministry.  But  if  the  church  is  to  perform  its  religious  educational  woi'k 
with  efficiency  both  the  church  and  the  school  must  be  brought  into 
line  with  modern  educational  ideals  and  methods : 

1.  First,  the  Sunday-school  must  be  enlarged  so  as  to  become  in  fact 
the  educational  department  of  the  church,  or  the  church  organized  for 
its  teaching  ministry.  In  a  well-organized  church  the  educational  work 
should  be  so  aiTanged  as  to  meet  the  complete  religious  educational 
needs  of  the  community  in  which  it  is  located.  There  should  be  no  over- 
lapping in  the  courses  of  study  offered.  In  order  for  this  to  be  realized, 
all  the  educational  work  of  the  church  should  be  under  one  direction  and 
this  direction  should  be  the  Sunday-school  so  enlarged  as  to  be  known 
as  the  church-school.  This  means  that  the  Young  People's  Societies, 
Brotherhoods,  Boys'  Clubs,  etc.,  should  all  be  correlated  under  the 
school  of  the  church.  This  is  the  ideal  toward  which  we  are  moving 
to-day  and  many  churches  have  already  worked  out  the  new  and  better 
plan. 

2.  Secondly,  the  Sunday-school  as  the  school  of  the  church  must  be 
dignified — put  on  a  par  with  the  service  of  worship.  In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  prophets  or  religious  teachers  were  greater  than  the  priests. 
In  the  New  Testament  teachers  were  among  those  appointed  in  the 
churches  and  certainly  the  Master  was  preeminently  a  religious  teacher. 
The  teaching  ministry  of  the  church  must,  therefore,  be  dignified  if  we 
are  to  perform  this  ministry  with  success.  Just  as  there  should  be  in 
every  church  a  pastor  and  preacher  who  shepherds  and  inspires  his  peo- 
ple, so  there  should  be  in  every  church  a  paid  Director  of  Religious  Edu- 
cation who  looks  after  the  work  of  the  religious  instruction  and  training 
of  the  people.  These  two  men  should  be  as  Jonathan  and  David  in  the 
church,  not  rivals  but  fellow-workers  in  the  kingdom.  In  their  spheres 
of  labor  they  should  mutually  excel  each  other,  and  both  should  rejoice 
in  tlie  common  success  of  their  work.  Many  churches  have  so  dignified 
the  Sunday-school  or  educational  work  of  the  church  by  putting  in  this 
Director  of  Religious  Education.     This  should  be  done  in  every  church 


340  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

where  the  finances  will  permit  and  where  the  finances  will  not  permit 
the  pastor  must  combine  in  his  own  person  the  two  lines  of  work.  One 
of  the  qualifications  of  the  ministry  mentioned  by  the  Apostle  Paul  was 
aptness  to  teach.  Our  seminaries  must,  therefore,  furnish  pedagogical 
training  to  our  ministers  as  well  as  homiletieal  and  pastoral. 

3.  Thirdly,  there  must  be  trained  teachers  and  leaders  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  church's  educational  work.  Too  long  has  the  church  been 
content  to  let  any  one  handle  the  Avord  of  truth,  whether  they  knew  much 
or  little  about  the  meaning  of  that  truth  or  the  true  methods  of  pre- 
senting the  same.  The  demands  for  a  trained  leadership  have  come  to 
the  front  in  these  first  years  of  our  century  and  it  looks  as  if  the  church 
is  going  seriously  to  work  at  this  problem  of  securing  efficient  teachers 
of  the  Word.  In  some  churches  it  will  be  solved  by  employing  paid 
Sunday-school  teachers.  Personally  we  prefer  the  voluntary  spirit  in 
this  work  but  we  are  frank  to  say  that  we  would  rather  have  paid  teach- 
ers than  poor  teachers.  Childhood  and  youth  is  too  sacred  to  be  turned 
over  for  religious  training  to  people  whose  only  qualification  for  the 
work  is  their  ignorance  and  their  goodness.  Our  teachers  must  know 
the  nature  and  needs  of  the  pupils,  the  principles  and  methods  of 
teaching  the  message  of  divine  truth,  and  ways  and  means  of  performing 
practical  Christian  service.  If  time  and  space  permitted  we  should  like 
to  point  out  how  the  denominational  college  can  come  to  the  relief  of  the 
church  in  raising  up  these  leaders.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  severest  in- 
dictment that  can  be  brought  against  the  denominational  college  is  its 
failure  to  furnish  the  church  with  leaders  for  its  educational  work.  In 
the  report  of  the  committee  on  ''Moral  and  Religious  Education"  at  the 
Northern  Baptist  Convention  in  Chicago,  1910,  are  the  following  words : 

''The  Commission  is  impressed  that  in  the  majority  of  them  (denomi- 
national colleges)  inadequate  provision  is  made  for  the  instruction  of 
students  in  those  subjects  that  contribute  most  directly  to  the  develop- 
ment of  character  and  the  fitting  of  men  to  be  intelligent  and  competent 
leaders  in  the  church  and  State.  Colleges  which  seek  and  obtain  the 
highest  talent  for  the  chairs  of  science  and  philosophy  leave  the  conduct 
of  courses  in  the  Bibje  to  undergraduate  students,  and  while  offering 
competent  instruction  in  ancient  language  and  general  history,  provide 
none  in  the  history  of  religion  or  the  general  content  of  Christianity. 
There  is  also,  it  is  to  be  feared,  too  little  systematic  effort  to  promote 
in  other  ways  the  moral  welfare  of  the  student  body.  It  is  the  belief 
of  the  Commission  that  these  conditions  demand  the  serious  attention 
of  college  faculties  and  boards  of  trustees,  and  they  suggest : 

"(1)  That  every  college  faculty  should  include  as  professor  of  bib- 
lical literature  and  Christian  religion,  a  man  of  thorough  scholarship  and 
high  character. 

"(2)  That  the  college  should  offer  not  only  instruction  on  the  Bible, 
but  a  course  on  the  history  and  present  condition  of  the  church,  and  on 
the  central  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  and  ethics,  and  on 
methods  of  religious  work. 

"(3)  That  the  cultivation  of  strong  moral  character,  thorough  in- 
struction, discipline,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  favorable  atmosphere, 
should  be  matters  of  concern  second  to  none  of  the  purposes  of  the  col- 
lege. ' ' 

If  our  denominational  colleges  Avere  to  carry  out  this  provision  they 
would  send  back  to  our  church  enough  competent  leaders  to  inspire  the 


Saturday,  June  24.]        RECORD  OF  FROC'EEDIXGS.  341 

cliureli  with  the  dignity  and  importance  of  its  educational  work  and  to 
assist  the  pastor  and  Director  of  Religious  Education  (if  there  be  such) 
in  the  training  of  others  in  the  church  for  this  work.  Meanwhile,  we 
must  do  the  best  we  can  to  secure  this  trained  leadership  through  the 
regular  teacher-training  conference  of  the  present  Sunday-school  faculty 
and  through  the  teacher-training  class  made  up  of  prospective  teachers. 
A  good  teacher's  and  worker's  library  is  a  necessary  adjunct  for  this 
work.  One  thing  is  absolutely  certain — the  church  cannot  perform  its 
religious  educational  work  without  trained  teachers  and  leaders. 

4.  Again,  if  the  church  would  succeed  in  its  religious  educational 
work  it  must  make  use  of  the  principles  and  methods  in  modern  educa- 
tion. If  the  church  persists  in  pursuing  the  old  mechanical  and  spectacu- 
lar methods  it  is  doomed  to  failure  in  this  line  of  its  work.  If  it  con- 
tinues to  believe  in  the  partition  theory  of  the  human  soul  and  so  tries  to 
train  the  religious  life  of  the  child  or  youth  apart  from  its  general  life  it 
is  doomed  to  worse  than  failure.  Education,  as  already  said,  is  a  unitary 
process.  The  mind  acts  and  grows  as  a  whole  and  the  laws  which  guide 
us  are  the  laws  which  God  has  implanted  in  the  human  mind.  If  our 
theological  beliefs  and  ecclesiastical  customs  are  in  the  way  of  these 
laws,  then  these  theological  beliefs  and  customs  must  go  the  way  of  all 
the  earth.  In  all  educational  work,  be  it  religious  or  any  other,  the  laws 
of  the  human  mind  are  our  divine  guides.  Our  methods  of  teaching  must 
be  based  upon  these  mental  facts  and  laws.  We  cannot  manufacture 
methods  of  our  own  and  impose  these  upon  the  growing  minds  of  the 
pupils  we  are  seeking  to  train.  Yes,  God  will  help  us  in  all  this  great 
and  noble  work,  but  He  will  not  upset  the  laws  of  the  human  mind 
Avhich  He  has  created.  It  is  our  business  to  find  out  these  laws  and  make 
our  methods  conform  to  them.  He  who  gave  us  the  truth  made  the  mind 
and  its  laws.  When  that  truth  is  properly  brought  to  bear  upon  the  mind 
of  the  pupil  we  discover  that  the  truth  and  the  person  fit  each  other. 
Therefore,  in  all  our  efforts  at  the  training  of  the  minds  of  our  pupils 
in  morals  and  religion  let  us  have  done  with  the  notion  that  God  will  per- 
form a  miracle  to  overrule  our  ignorance.  Any  method  so  it  is  pious  will 
not  do  for  Sunday-school  teaching  and  training.  There  are  principles 
and  methods  in  all  religious  training,  and  they  are  just  as  divine  as  the 
truth  we  are  teaching.  Since  the  truth  used  by  his  Spirit  is  designed 
to  give  and  develop  the  highest  life,  we  should  expect  when  we  are  teach- 
ing that  truth  according  to  God's  own  laws  in  the  mind  that  it  should 
be  the  means  of  leading  our  pupils  into  the  life  more  abundant. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  the  church  in  its  educational  work  through 
the  Sunday-school  must  make  use  of  graded  instruction.  We  must  go 
back  to  Paul's  idea  in  our  conception  of  the  materials  of  instruction — 
milk  for  babes  and  meat  for  men.  The  common  sense  of  this  is  so  ap- 
parent that  it  is  really  a  strange  lohenomenon  that  the  idea  of  uni- 
formity in  religious  instruction  should  have  grown  up  in  the  Sunday- 
school  world.  The  erection  of  this  idol  by  the  International  Sunday 
School  Association  and  its  leaders  and  the  ardent  and  fervent  and  per- 
sistent worship  of  the  same  by  Sunday-school  workers  has  in  my  judg- 
ment hindered  the  success  of  the  church  in  its  religious  educational  work. 
Thank  God  the  death  knell  of  the  uniform  lesson  system  has  been  struck 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  our  Sunday-school  pupils.  The  day 
of  the  graded  lessons  is  here  and  soon  the  old  idol  of  uniformity  will  be 
broken  in  pieces  under  the  wheels  of  the  chariot  of  progress. 


342  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

6.  In  the  educational  work  of  the  church  greater  provision  must  be 
made  in  the  future  for  the  expressional  aspect  of  religion.  Not  only 
must  there  be  religious  instruction  and  the  stimulation  of  the  emotions 
through  sacred  music,  but  there  must  be  definite  lines  of  Christian  ser- 
vice provided  for  the  child,  youth,  and  adult.  The  pupils  in  the  Sun- 
day-school must  be  taught  to  enter  into  the  general  activities  of  the 
church  and  its  service.  One  of  the  best  things  is  for  the  church  to  con- 
duet  a  mission  Sunday-school  or  social  settlement  or  some  other  definite 
piece  of  Christian  service.  In  my  own  church  our  mission  Sunday-school 
meant  more  to  the  life  of  my  church  than  any  other  one  thing.  If  you 
please,  the  church  in  its  educational  work  must  become  more  and  more 
a  laboratory  for  Christian  service.  Our  pupils  must  be  taught  not  only 
to  memorize  religious  truth  but  to  live  it  out.  Thus  we  reach  the  climax 
of  educational  work — learning  by  doing. 

7.  Last  of  all,  if  the  school  of  the  church  is  to  perform  its  religious 
educational  work  with  the  greatest  success,  it  must  co-operate  with  the 
public  and  other  so-called  secular  schools.  Much  of  the  work  being 
done  in  these  can  be  turned  to  account  in  our  religious  educational  work. 
Our  Sundaj'-schools,  therefore,  must  take  into  consideration  the  progress 
of  the  instruction  given  in  secular  subjects  and  must  correlate  its  own 
religious  instruction  with  this.  The  teachers  in  our  schools  must  visit 
the  public  schools  and  enter  into  as  close  personal  relationship  with  the 
teachers  in  our  day-schools  as  is  possible.  Both  class  of  teachers  are  fel- 
low-workers in  the  development  of  character  and  both  should  gladly  help 
each  other  in  the  task  which  they  are  undertaking  to  perform. 

In  this  rapid  survey  of  the  place  of  the  church  in  education  and  of  the 
actual  religious  educational  work  of  the  church  through  the  Sunday- 
school  it  has  been  impossible  to  cite  concrete  cases  or  to  give  specific 
details.  It  is  our  earnest  hope  that  the  words  given  above  may  act  as 
suggestive  stimuli  on  your  healthy  minds  and  that  the  reaction  may 
bring  beneficial  results. 

(Applause.) 

Chairman:  Our  next  paper  is  on  ''Education  Through  the  Family," 
and  it  is  only  the  right  thing  that  a  family  man  should  present  it.  I 
will  vouch  for  Mr.  Goldsmith  French  that  he  is  one  of  the  most  brotherly 
ministers  that  you  could  want. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  EDUCATION  THROUGH  THE  FAMILY. 
By  Rev.  F.  GOLDSMITH  FRENCH,  London,  England. 

It  is  well  that  in  an  assembly  such  as  this  Ave  should  touch  with  a  firm 
hand  the  great,  grave  themes  of  life.  It  is  no  surprise  therefore  that  the 
subject  allotted  to  me  should  make  immediate  demand  for  three  of  the 
greatest  words  in  our  language, — Church,  Child,  and  Home.  Those  must 
be  the  three  insistent  notes  of  any  treatment  of  my  theme.  The  relation- 
shiiD  of  the  three  in  education  is  the  inquiry  demanded ;  a  most  vital 
inquiry  too  at  this  juncture  in  the  life  of  all  nations. 

Education  itself  needs  to  be  defined.  We  who  are  to  speak  of  it  in  its 
relation  to  the  church  can  find  no  better  definition  than  Ruskin's  almost 


Saturday,  June  24. J        RECORD  OF  I'ROCEEDINGS. 


343 


final  one, — that  it  is  "a  great  assay  of  the  human  souV^  It  is  indeed 
the  human  soul  being  tested,  puritied,  and  expanded,  in  all  its  faculties. 
Such  at  least  must  be  the  church's  conception  of  education. 

It  is  necessary  to  say  at  the  outset  that  wlien  we  speak  of  the  church, 
we  mean,  not  a  quasi-sacred,  and  wholly  imperious  society,  ambitious  for 
power,  and  willing  to  have  it  at  all  costs.  We  mean  rather,  a  holy  frater- 
nity, conscious  of  humbling  privileges,  and  ever  impelled  by  a  wistful 
desire  to  win  and  to  be  of  service  to  those  without  its  borders.  When 
therefore  we  speak  of  the  church's  relationship  to  education,  or  to  any 
other  matter  of  human  importance,  we  speak  of  what  might  be  the  com- 
mon attitude  of  all  societies  of  believers  to  their  own  children  and  the 
children  of  others,  in  those  cardinal  years  when  ''the  great  assay  of  the 
human  soul"  is  being  made.  And  since  it  is  indeed  a  process  in  which 
the  testing  and  expansion  of  the  soul  are  at  stake,  the  church  by  its  very 
charter,  by  the  terms  of  every  covenant  with  its  Lord  and  Head,  is  vitally 
and  perpetually  interested  in  the  matter.  We  part  company  therefore 
at  the  very  outset  with  the  Roman  ideal  of  church  and  education,  where 
power  and  wealth  having  monopolized  knowledge,  dole  it  out  in  small 
portions  to  those  likely  to  be  useful  to  the  propaganda  of  Holy  Church. 
We  do  not  share  the  ecstasy  w^hich  follows  this  largess,  whether  we  see 
it  in  Roman  or  in  Anglican  methods. 

Of  our  interest  in  the  Home,  a  term  which  I  think  slightly  more  flex- 
ible and  useful  than  * 'family, "  we  need  to  have  very  clear  conceptions. 
The  true  home,  as  we  know  it,  is  a  Christian  creation,  and  it  is  invested 
with  ideals  and  hopes  which  belong  siDceifically  to  the  people  of  God.  In 
its  best  developments  it  is  the  fruit  of  a  holy  faith  which  transfigures  a 
natural  relationship  until  it  becomes  white  and  glistering  with  a  beauty 
unknown  where  Christ  is  a  stranger.  Apart  from  the  Christian  hope, 
the  home  is  but  the  pathetic  meeting-place  of  souls  made  kindred  for  a 
short  dwelling  in  the  light,  and  tlien  doomed  to  the  exquisite  pain  of  a 
hopeless  parting  leaving  it  no  possible  farewell  except  the  poignant, 
heart-breaking  ^^Ave  atque  vale"  I  of  Catullus.  In  the  Christian  con- 
ception of  home,  that  is  to  say  in  the  Christian  creation  of  home,  church 
and  family  are  intimately  related  and  the  debt  of  the  latter  to  the  former 
is  infinite.  The  home  indeed  is  to  the  church  what  the  subsidiary  chapel 
is  to  the  great  and  massive  cathedral.  It  is  a  little  nearer  to  the  light 
of  common  day,  and  frequented  perhaps  more  readily  for  common  devo- 
tion, but  it  is  part  of  the  same  holy  structure;  the  same  incense  lingers 
in  both :  it  has  in  fact  all  the  essentials  of  the  august  life  of  the  vaster 
edifice  to  which  it  is  attached.  Dora  Greenwell  has  expressed  the  relation 
between  home  and  church  in  words  of  memorable  beauty, — "The  fire  of 
the  altar,"  she  says,  "is  always  brought  from  the. household  hearth,  the 
hearth  kindled  from  the  altar." 

Such  a  relationship  has  been  implicit  and  actual  wherever  a  vital  and 
reformed  faith  has  been  dominant.  It  has  been  the  special  possession  of 
the  German  and  Anglo-Saxon  speaking  peoples  wherever  they  have 
tasted  the  joy  of  the  Protestant  faith.  Home  and  church  with  them 
were  one,  not  by  the  visitation  of  the  priest,  nor  by  the  appearance  of  the 
parent  and  child  at  the  altars  of  the  church,  but  by  a  deeper  and  more 
organic  unity.  For  them  the  days  were  past,  when  the  church  gathered 
the  children  out  of  the  home  as  from  a  secular  environment,  and  edu- 
cated them,  by  giving  a  parsimonious  quantity  of  instruction  chiefly  to 
the  child  most  likely  to  be  useful  for  ecclesiastical  purposes.    Those  days 


344  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

happily  past,  the  family  became  a  much  more  sacred  thing.  Religion  no 
longer  came  to  hallow  a  carnal  relationship  as  by  a  tour  de  force.  The 
altar  fire  came  to  the  hearth  to  abide,  and  home  and  church  were  one. 

From  that  moment,  there  was  never  any  doubt  as  to  the  interest  which 
the  church  had  in  education.  The  moment  it  saw  in  the  children,  all 
the  limitless  possibilities  which  the  free  gospel  of  grace  implies,  from 
that  moment,  it  was  bound  to  think  with  special  regard  of  that  "great 
assay  of  the  human  soul."  No  one  might  guess  what  God  had  in  store 
for  the  lowliest  child  of  the  lowliest  home,  therefore  nothing  that  the 
people  of  faith  could  do  for  the  child  was  too  great.  It  might  be  that 
the  Lord's  David,  youngest  and  least  regarded  of  his  race,  was  away  on 
the  hills  at  the  sheepfolds;  all  the  vast  hopefulness  of  the  reformed 
church  demanded  that  the  young  seer  and  singer  should  be  given  fullest 
powers  of  song.  None  might  know  what  the  Lord  needed  from  him  in 
days  to  come ;  none  might  dare  to  stay  the  hand  of  preparation  by  which 
the  assay  of  the  soul  was  accomplished.  None  was  foolish  enough  to  look 
for  the  Lord's  elect  men  only  among  the  fortunate  of  the  community.  It 
was  in  Bohemia  and  Saxony,  in  the  England  of  Elizabeth  and  especially 
in  the  Scotland  of  John  Knox,  that  the  vital  relationship  of  church, 
child  and  home  were  first  realized  in  what  we  call  education. 

Scotland  herself  may  stand  as  our  nearest  and  best  illustration ;  and 
I  speak  of  her  with  perfect  detachment  of  feeling  as  having  no  trace  of 
Scots  ancestry.  She  is  our  best  concrete  illustration  at  least  among  the 
Saxon-speaking  races;  and  her  sons  this  morning  will  forgive  me  for 
suggesting  that  they  speak  Saxon.  In  the  land  that  bred  the  Covenant- 
ers, and  will  only  die  when  she  forgets  them,  church  and  home  and  edu- 
cation have  been  linked  in  a  way  that  knows  no  parallel  anywhere  else. 
England  herself  can  only  look  on  in  respectful  admiration  at  a  tradition 
which,  as  yet,  she  has  never  been  able  to  imitate.  In  the  old  northern 
land,  we  have  seen,  and  may  still  see  if  we  will,  church  and  home  in  per- 
fect and  willing  unity  with  each  other,  concentrating  their  attention  on 
the  child.  So  fully  has  this  been  the  case,  that  we  may  speak  of  the  child 
as  walking  hand  in  hand  with  pastor  and  parent  from  home  to  school  from 
church  to  home;  all  the  institutions  and  relationships  so  blended  that 
it  is  difficult  to  say  where  the  field  of  the  one  and  that  of  the  other 
began.  Putting  it  in  definite  terms,  we  may  say  that  the  pastor  was  an 
honored  but  not  an  over-exalted  priest  and  that  the  schoolmaster  was 
invested  with  a  dignity  which  he  has  scarcely  possessed  anywhere  else, — 
least  of  all  in  England,  where  the  superior  man  still  ranks  him  vei-y  low 
in  the  scale  of  national  assets.  The  parent  did  not  depute  his  respon- 
sibilities in  religion  and  in  education,  to  pastor  and  dominie.  The  part 
which  the  church  played  in  Scottish  education,  it  played  through  its 
strong,  sound  influence  in  the  home.  Parents  did  not  part  with  respon- 
sibilities to  either  school  or  church,  and  the  church  held  its  supremacy 
in  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  people  by  hallowing  the  vocation  of 
both  parent  and  schoolmaster,  and  by  encouraging  them  both  in  a  vitally 
active  relation  to  one  another.  This  she  did,  because  in  those  far-off 
days  she  had  realized  that  education  does  not  mean  the  swiftest  equip- 
ment for  the  earning  of  wealth,  but  the  proving  of  the  soul.  Judged  by 
the  result  of  her  methods,  Scotland  may  lift  up  her  head  among  the 
nations  unashamed. 

But  it  is  fundamentallj^  important  that  we  should  not  forget  that  this 


Saturday,  June  24.]        h'KCOh'D  OF  I'ROVEKIJIXOS.  345 

great  work  was  done  by  the  encouragement  of  the  church,  through  the 
home.  The  special  glory  of  the  process  was,  that  so  large  a  part  of  it 
was  carried  out  in  closest  relation  to  parental  oversight.  To  put  the 
matter  quite  frankly, — there  had  not  then  arisen  the  modern  habit, — the 
fatal  habit  of  contracting  out  of  parental  responsibilities.  The  proving 
of  the  soul  was  not  committed  wholly  to  a  deputy;  not  even  to  a  deputy 
who  was  at  least  an  ordained  clergyman  even  if  he  was  not  a  teacher. 
We  may  as  well  with  full  courage  face  the  fact  that  habits  have  changed, 
and  that  we  are  as  nations  under  the  dominion  of  another  tendency.  We 
see  a  growing  inclination  to  forego  for  at  least  a  larger  part  of  every 
year,  and  over  long  spaces  of  a  child's  life,  all  parental  control.  The 
deputizing  of  our  responsibilities  is  even  wider  than  that.  We  have 
elaborated  our  Sunday-school  system,  until  parents  in  many  cases  have 
forgotten  that  they  have  any  responsibilities  or  duties  at  all  in  the 
sphere  of  religion.  W^e  have  elaborated  secular  education  to  a  point  at 
which  little  or  nothing  is  left  to  the  parent,  not  even  the  making  of  sac- 
rifice for  the  proving  of  his  child's  soul.  And  in  cases  where  adequate 
wealth  permits,  we  see  a  wholesale  deputing  of  every  type  of  control. 
The  education  of  the  child  is  carried  on  under  a  system  in  which 
home,  and  all  that  it  stands  for,  plays  only  a  slight  part,  and  with  the 
best  intentions  possible,  the  loss  can  only  be  partially  made  good  by 
scrupulous  pedagogy. 

Now  it  is  well  for  us  to  know  what  we  mean  at  this  point,  and  to 
speak  with  no  uncertain  voice.  We  therefore  say  without  the  slightest 
reserve  or  hesitation,  that  except  in  some  rare  cases,  home  is  the  place, 
and  the  one  place,  from  which  the  great  assay  of  the  soul  can  be  fully 
made.  No  institution,  however  finely  it  be  organized  or  deeply  hallowed, 
can  possibly  take  the  place  of  home  as  a  sphere  for  the  proving  of  the 
soul.  Give  it  Arnold  of  Rugby,  Almond  of  Loretto,  or  Francke  of  Halle, 
for  its  head,  and  it  is  still  school;  and  that  which  the  church  should 
desire  to  do  for  the  children  of  the  church  cannot  be  accomplished 
there,  as  it  can  through  a  true  family  life.  We  may  pay  every  possible 
tribute  to  the  high-souled  leadership  of  great  public  schools,  and  at  the 
end  be  forced  to  say  that  they  can  never  be  anything  but  slightly 
coarser  in  tone  and  harder  in  temper  than  the  life  of  the  family  is.  They 
do  not  possess  the  high  positive  qualities  of  a  Christian  home,  and  with 
their  further  blemishes  of  insistent  competitive  effort  and  prize-winning, 
they  fail  entirely  to  provide  the  eomiDlete  field  for  the  assay  of  the  soul. 
None  know  it  so  well  as  the  heads  of  our  great  public  schools. 

We  need  be  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  ideals  the  church  has  in  the  mat- 
ter of  education.  They  are  nowhere  better  expressed  than  in  the  Pauline 
phrase, — "In  everything  ye  wei-e  enriched  in  Him,  in  all  utterance  and 
all  knowledge."  That  magnificent  ideal  is  essentially  ours  when  we 
think  of  the  child  in  church  and  home.  The  State  may  have  large 
dreams  of  making  it  an  efficient  unit  in  the  sum  of  its  life,  but  we  have 
farther-reaching  hopes;  and  for  the  fulfilment  of  those  hopes  we  look 
to  the  family  within  the  home  as  to  our  chief  stronghold.  We  need  not 
admit,  for  we  do  not  believe,  that  the  great  virtues  of  manhood  and 
womanhood  are  less  to  be  expected  there,  than  in  the  great  educational 
establishments  of  our  land.  We  believe  and  we  plead,  that  the  finer 
issues  of  life  are  nowhere  better  seen,  and  their  meaning  nowhere  better 
understood  than  through  the  tender  alembic  of  home  life.  By  that  me- 
dium we  hold  that  every  worthy  quality  of  the  soul  can  be  developed 


346  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAXCE. 

and  confirmed.  The  boy,  for  instance,  going  forth  each  day  to  the 
technical  discipline  which  is  only  part  of  education,  should  not  suffer  by 
failing  to  learn  fortitude  and  patience  within  the  walls  of  his  father's 
house.  To  such  a  youth,  the  sight  of  his  parents  in  the  inevitable  hours 
of  sorrow,  when  perilous  reverses  come,  or  when  the  older  and  beloved 
pass  away,  must  be  no  small  part  of  his  "proving."  Christian  instruc- 
tion he  may  get  elsewhere,  but  the  interpretation  of  Christianity  he 
can  only  get  in  that  fashion,  and  nowhere  else  so  fullj^  or  so  finely. 
The  testimony  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  the  power  and  beauty  of  its 
Lord,  can  in  no  wise  come  to  a  young  life  in  fairer  fashion  than  through 
the  medium  of  the  holy  friendship  and  manifold  fellowship  of  home. 
The  music  and  the  fragrance  from  the  vaster  sanctuary  of  the  Universal 
Church  drifts  into  the  smaller  spaces  of  those  sacred  shrines  that  we 
call  home.  It  may  be  that  the  music  loses  sweetness  in  the  drifting,  and 
that  the  fragrance  is  somewhat  spent,  but  there  is  enough  of  it  to  speak 
of  a  holier  and  greater  temple,  and  to  prepare  the  hearts  of  the  young 
for  beauties  which  shall  be  new  and  yet  familiar  enough  to  be  welcome. 
The  truest  and  richest  part  of  the  education  of  many  of  us  has  been 
granted  to  us  in  daily  fellowship  with  the  chequered  life  of  our  elders. 
Their  open  outlook  upon  the  world's  fair  and  ample  fields  of  knowledge, 
their  stalwart  fidelity  to  duty  and  their  unpretentious  trust  in  God,  their 
patient  fortitude  amid  the  baffling  mysteries  of  life,  and  their  victorious 
passing  into  the  Eternal  Kingdom,  have  in  all  certainty  been  part  of  our 
education,  and  the  major  part  of  it  too.  This  assembly  could,  if  it  cared 
to  do  so,  rise  with  almost  one  accord  in  silent  solemn  acclaim  of  the  long 
vanished  dead  or  the  living  nameless  friends,  to  whom  we  owe  that  in- 
terpretation of  the  Christ-life,  which  has  given  our  education  a  soul,  and 
redeemed  the  arid  spaces  of  our  academic  training. 

We  have  not  forgotten  amidst  all  that  has  been  said,  that  there  is  an 
easy  and  obvious  objection  to  much  of  our  plea  for  education  through  the 
home  and  in  the  home.  Someone  will  say,  and  he  will  say  it  with  a  blush 
if  he  be  a  wise  man, — ''Most  parents  are  not  equal  to  this  task  which  has 
been  described.  Fathers,  and  mothers  too,  are  indifferent,  incompetent, 
and  unaware  of  their  duties. ' '  That  objection  was  to  be  expected,  and 
Avithout  assenting  to  the  term  "most  parents,"  we  may  welcome  the  chal- 
lenge, even  though  the  fact  alleged  is  uuAvelcome.  There  is  probably  no 
Christian  Head  Master  living  who  is  not  perplexed  and  pained  by  the 
easy  way  in  which  for  a  term's  fees  parents  will  delegate  all  their  duties 
to  the  staff  of  the  institution  which  they  choose  to  honor  with  their 
patronage.  That  which  is  true  of  the  great  public  schools  has  its  coun- 
terpart in  less  wealthy  circles.  Numberless  parents  are  willing  to  dele- 
gate the  secular  instruction  to  the  day-school  teacher,  and  all  religious 
influence  to  the  Sunday-school.  It  is  an  inexpensive  purchase  of  im- 
munity, from  their  point  of  view,  but  it  has  a  sad  meaning,  and  it  is 
bringing  in  its  train  countless  perils  and  evils,  for  which  the  community 
and  the  individual  must  pay  dearly,  by  and  by. 

Our  objector  says  with  a  large  show  of  truth,  that  parents  are  incom- 
petent and  careless  in  these  matters;  and  in  so  far  as  his  charge  is  true, 
it  does  but  write  the  condemnation  of  our  home  life.  Nothing  less  than 
complete  failure  is  implied;  and  how  deep  that  failure  must  be,  we  all 
instinctively  feel  but  cannot  say.  We  must  endeavor,  though,  to  grasp 
some  of  its  meaning.  It  must  mean,  if  it  means  an;\i;hing,  that  there  is 
a  great  peril  in  our  Lord's  anthropomorphic  "OUR  FATHER."     When, 


Saturday,  Juno  :24.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  347 

as  we  are  bound  to  do,  we  put  those  words  into  the  lips  of  our  children, 
wliat  shapes  ol'  s'ood  or  ill  we  may  call  up  in  their  minds!  It  is  intended 
to  convey  the  tliought  of  a  mighty  and  a  majestic  compassion ;  it  may 
instead,  do  nothing  but  recall  apathy  and  incompetence  even  if  nothing 
baser  or  more  repulsive.  Fatherhood  that  fails  to  impress  itself  as 
something  worthy  and  memorable,  fatherhood  with  all  the  defects  that 
our  objector  names,  is  not  only  a  hindrance  to  education,  it  is  a  vital 
peril  to  high  conceptions  of  faith.  This  means,  at  least,  that  the  church 
must  watch  with  jealous  care,  lest  one  of  the  finest  symbols  and  expres- 
sions bequeathed  to  her  by  her  Lord  should  suffer  degradation.  Father- 
hood, as  a  symbol  of  God  and  as  a  means  to  a  great  end  in  the  pur- 
poses of  God,  is  not  a  thing  of  indifferent  interest  to  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  the  home  which  gathers  round  father  and  mother,  the  home 
which  they  make  for  the  lamily,  finds  a  new  imi^ortance;  it  is  especially 
an  intermediary  between  the  witnessing  church  and  the  soul  of  the  child. 

But  there  is  in  all  this  a  second  and  a  deeper  issue,  if  a  deeper  can 
exist,  viz.,  that  the  Church  of  Christ  has  failed  to  create  through  the 
hallowing  of  home,  a  fine  type  of  Christian  parentage.  This  is  true,  in 
so  far  as  our  objector  is  accurate.  If  all  the  delegation  of  responsibilitj' 
which  we  see  enacted  around  us  is  a  confession  of  failure  in  the  home; 
if  fathers  and  mothers  are  not  wise  enough  and  patient  enough  to  bring 
that  which  they  have  learned  of  Christ  into  the  service  of  their  children's 
education ;  if  because  it  is  irksome  or  beyond  them,  they  depute  to  others 
the  training  of  their  children  in  all  things,  during  many  of  the  most 
plastic  and  impressionable  years  of  their  lives, — then  indeed  we  may  say 
that  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  ever  had  those  men  and  women  in  its 
care,  has  failed  to  create  in  them  a  capacity  for  their  paramount  duty. 
If  it  be  true  that  we  have  a  generation  of  fathers  and  mothers  incom- 
petent or  indifferent  to  this  extent,  whose  fault  is  it  1  We  can  do  no  less 
than  throw  the  gage  of  battle  boldly  down  and  declare  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  has  been  too  long  silent  upon  this  matter.  Over 
long  periods  of  time  and  in  some  communities  particularly,  it  has  had  lit- 
tle place  in  her  thoughts.  From  her  preaching  and  her  prayers,  and 
still  worse  from  her  practice,  it  has  almost  disappeared  as  a  living  issue, 
until  the  moment  comes  when  she  feels  the  call  to  interest  herself  in  edu- 
cation, because  the  young  are  her  hope,  and  finds  herself  with  a  palsied 
arm,  one  of  her  chief  points  of  contact  with  the  children  gone.  In  such 
a  moment,  the  temptation  comes  to  resign  herself  to  a  despairing  inac- 
tivity, or  else  by  unworthy  bargains  and  mischievous  political  alliances, 
she  endeavors  as  one  of  her  lenders  advised,  to  "capture  the  schools." 
This  she  must  do,  because  she  has  failed  to  capture  the  homes. 

For  a  moment  yet,  it  may  be  well  to  inquire  further,  what  this  alleged 
parental  failure  means.  One  knows  of  children  entrusted  for  the  greater 
part  of  their  childhood's  best  years  to  the  care  of  other  than  their  pa- 
rents, for  a  variety  of  reasons  such  as  the  cultivation  of  their  manners, 
the  enforcement  of  better  discipline,  and  other  similar  reasons  which,  by 
some  strange  perversity,  the  very  parents  themselves  can  openly  state 
without  blushing.  In  countless  cases  it  never  seems  to  occur  to  the 
parents  that  in  no  other  i)lace  can  the  temperamental  defects  of  their 
children  find  so  early  recognition  or  so  thorough  treatment  as  at  home; 
Cliristian  parents  at  least  are  by  their  very  status  penitents.  They 
have  defects  which  they  recognize,  deplore,  and  strive  to  correct.  They 
know,  as  none  other  can,  the  "defects  of  doubt  and  taints  of  blood" 


348  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAlSiCE. 

which  are  likely  to  appear  in  their  children.  They  know  the  timidity 
which  may  be  mistaken  for  cowardice,  they  know  the  sunny-hearted 
optimism,  which  may  prove  to  be  colossal  weakness.  Their  knowledge  of 
themselves  is  part  ot  their  very  capacity  for  dealing  with  their  children ; 
and  as  Christian  penitents,  they  will  not  lightly  measure  incipient  folly 
and  sin.  They  are  the  only  people  who  are  in  a  position  to  bring  knowl- 
edge, tempered  with  the  pure  love  of  kindred,  to  bear  upon  the  work 
of  child-training.  In  an  age  which  talks  a  large  amount  of  learned 
fudge  about  the  psychology  of  the  child,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
kinship  is  insight,  at  least  for  every  Christian  man  and  woman.  If  the 
parent  is  not  psychologist-in-chief  to  his  own  family,  he  will  not  readily 
find  a  competent  deputy. 

In  so  far  then  as  it  is  true  that  the  church  has  failed  to  create  a  high 
and  competent  type  of  parenthood,  she  has  indeed  failed  in  a  way  which 
once  again  awakens  the  old  regret,  that  good  causes  should  so  often  be 
served  by  such  poor  strategy.  There  is  no  evangelist  like  a  good  father. 
There  are  no  deaconesses  like  the  holy  company  of  universal  mother- 
hood. If  the  church  is  not  well  served  by  these  she  is  indeed  shorn  of 
her  chief  strength;  and  all  her  excursions  into  the  realm  of  education, — 
truly  her  own  realm, — will  be  made  from  the  wrong  side  of  the  terri- 
tory. She  may  herself  build  schools,  and  watch  them  with  jealous  eye; 
hang  on  their  walls  the  crucifix  and  the  pictured  Madonna,  or  even  in- 
vest the  thorny  ways  of  simple  subtraction  with  an  ecclesiastical  atmos- 
phere; she  will  then  have  given  to  the  children  of  the  nation  no  gift  like 
that  of  Christian  parents,  wise  with  the  lore  of  Olivet  and  Calvary. 

My  plea  then  is  not  a  theoretical  one;  it  asks  for  a  practical  and  defi- 
nite movement.  It  comes  begging  the  churches  of  our  order  to  say  that  in 
some  measure  at  least  they  have  been  culpably  wrong.  It  asks  them  to 
restore  to  the  place  of  highest  honor  the  Christian  home;  to  recognize 
in  it  the  finest  intermediary  between  a  testifying  church  and  the  souls  of 
the  young.  It  begs  them  to  realize  that  the  magnificent  enterprise  which 
we  call  education  is  indeed  "an  assay  of  the  human  soul,"  and  not  alone 
a  path  to  wealth  or  competence.  It  asks  them  to  believe  that  all  educa- 
tion is  vain  which  has  not  as  its  base  a  well-frequented  Christian  home. 
Beyond  all  else  it  asks  them  to  realize  that  the  home,  with  its  encircled 
family,  is  the  first  care  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  that  nothing  can 
compensate  for  failure  there.  Without  priestly  domination,  or  any  of  its 
veiled  counterparts,  but  by  pure  spiritual  influence,  she  must  regain 
whatever  supremacy  she  may  have  lost.  Among  all  her  high  and  mag- 
nificent hopes  there  is  none  so  great  or  so  worthy  as  that  which  she 
cherishes  for  the  young,  and  for  their  enrichment  in  all  things.  The  old 
Pauline  hope  still  persisting,  is  the  ground  of  her  interest  in  their  educa- 
tion, and  it  is  of  the  supremest  strategical  importance  to  her  for  her  own 
future.  What  she  does,  however.  She  will  do,  not  because  of  some  sup- 
posed ecclesiastical  right,  nor  for  the  mere  sake  of  fear  for  her  per- 
manence as  an  institution.  She  will  do  it  because  tlie  enrichment  of  the 
race  in  all  things  is  part  of  her  commission.  She  is  called  not  only  to 
save  but  to  edify,  and  in  her  best  moments  she  has  had  but  one  desire, — 
to  pass  on  the  glories  of  her  heritage  from  generation  to  generation,  with 
an  unsparing  hand. 

To  accomplish  this,  it  may  be  needful  for  the  organized  church  to 
change  its  ways.  It  may  have  to  recall  its  scattered  energies  from  a 
hundred  lesser  causes  and  concentrate  them  upon  this  vast  one.    It  may 


Saturday,  June  24.]        RECORD  OF  PROCEEDI'SOS.  349 

even  be  needful  for  it  to  realize  that  it  has  itself  been  perhaps  the  far- 
too-frequent  disturber  of  home  habits,  giving  the  young  far  too  many 
reasons  for  absenting  themselves  from  the  family  circle.  It  may  at 
length  discern  that  it  has  been  misled  by  smart  and  plausible  epigrams 
concerning  "coddling  the  saints"  and  may  see  with  a  new  wonder  that 
if  only  it  could  make  more  saints  and  make  of  them  heads  of  house- 
holds, it  Avould  be  doing  well.  In  such  a  moment  of  discernment,  it  will 
realize  that  every  other  work  that  it  has  to  do  pales  before  this  in  splen- 
dor and  falls  short  of  it  in  immediate  fruitfulness.  "Whether  or  no  the 
Scotland  of  John  Knox  foresaw  this  or  not,  we  cannot  say,  nor  may  we 
say  that  the  Church  of  Christ  in  that  land  at  any  time  perfectly  solved 
th'e  problem  of  education  through  the  family.  But  it  is  clearly  evident 
to  every  careful  observer  that  she  Avent  far  toward  a  solution  and  that 
the  result  has  been  the  sending  forth  of  the  nation's  sons  into  all 
spheres  where  men  of  strength  were  needed.  Equally  evident  is  it  too, 
that  in  return,  those  sons  have  given  the  finest  fruit  of  their  heart  and 
brain  to  the  service  of  the  church  to  which  they  owe  so  much. 

To  the  churches  of  our  faith  and  order,  the  call  to  a  finer  strategy  is 
loud  and  clear.  We  have  wasted  our  strength  upon  trifles.  We  have  as 
a  fighting  force  kept  too  long  a  front  and  depleted  our  poAver  at  well- 
ni^•h  valueless  outposts.  We  have  rejoiced  over  showy  exploits  and  neg- 
lected the  sober  task  of  guarding  our  base.  Hence  the  almost  palsying 
fear  that  often  overtakes  us,  when  we  take  quiet  survey  of  the  field. 

I  rejoice  in  every  heroic  and  forward  movement  for  the  universal 
proclamation  of  the  everlasting  gospel,  and  I  join  with  fullest  heart,  in 
the  wonderful  hopeful  work  that  is  being  done  directly  among  the  chil- 
dren. ''Capture  the  young"  is  a  prudent  cry,  and  I  join  in  all  that  it 
means  without  hesitation.  But  I  say  further,  capture  them  through 
those  that  first  loved  them, — through  the  mother  who  bore  them  and  the 
father  who  toiled  for  them,  and  do  this  not  by  arrogant  domination  or 
offensive  patronage,  but  by  preaching  in  season  and  out  of  season  the 
sanctity  of  the  home,  its  supremacy  as  a  place  of  education,  and  its  close 
kinship  to  the  Holy  Church  of  the  Living  Christ. 

(Applause.) 

Hymn,  ''Open  the  Door  for  the  Children." 

Chair:n[AN:  The  crown  of  our  educational  work  is  not  in  our  schools 
only  but  in  the  seminaries  and  the  colleges.  I  have  known  for  some  time 
past  that  there  are  two  Dr.  Poteats  that  are  excellent  at  this  work.  I  am 
not  sure  but  that  we  are  going  to  have  the  wisdom  of  both  of  them  boiled 
down  and  delivered  to  us  by  this  Dr.  Poteat  who  is  on  the  platform. 

Dr.  E.  M.  Poteat,  of  South  Carolina,  spoke  as  follows : 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  SCHOOLS,  COLLEGES  AND  SEMINARIES. 

By  Dr.  E.  M.  POTEAT,  of  South  Carolina. 

Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the  Conference :  In  the  course  of  these 
conferences  many  definitions  of  the  Christian  task  have  been 
given.        Apropos    of    the    Coronation    of    George    the    Fifth    I    pro- 


350  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

pose  another :  The  Christian  task  is  the  enthronement  of  Je- 
sus over  all  the  world  and  over  all  the  life  of  the  world.  If  you  Britishers 
should  attempt  to  make  George  a  universal  king  you  know  some  of  the 
things  that  would  happen,  but  you  do  not  know  them  all;  only  the  de- 
scendants of  the  American  Revolution  on  these  shores  could  guess,  and 
even  their  guesses  would  not  cover  the  case.  But  our  commission  as 
Christians  is  precisely  this — to  make  Jesus  Universal  King!  The  Brit- 
ish Empire  accepts  George  and  there  is  to-day  no  remotest  hamlet  in 
that  vast  dominion  which  has  not  raised  the  Union  Jack  and  shouted, 
''God  save  the  King!  Long  live  the  King!"  Some  places  and  some  in- 
terests have  accepted  Jesus.  They  have  accepted  him  in  heaven.  He 
left  a  handful  of  disciples  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  but  he  was  welcomed 
by  an  innumerable  company  of  saints  and  angels  in  giory.  They  gath- 
ered on  the  battlements  of  the  Eternal  City  and  sang  in  multitudinous 
chorus,  ''Unfold  ye  portals  everlasting  and  let  the  King  come  in." 
"Lift  up  your  heads,  0  ye  gates,  and  be  ye  lifted  up  ye  everlasting 
doors  and  let  the  King  of  Glory  come  in.  Who  is  this  King  of  Glory? 
The  Lord,  strong  and  mighty,  he  is  the  King  of  Glory ! " 

But  here  on  earth  in  his  purchased  domain  there  are  places  that  have 
never  heard  his  name;  and  even  where  he  has  been  accepted  there  are  in- 
terests which  mock  his  claim.  He  must  be  king  over  industry  and  trade, 
over  society  and  education,  over  legislatures  and  courts,  over  presidents 
and  parliaments,  over  kings  and  emperors,  over  popes  and  czars.  And 
here,  to  my  thinking,  emerges  in  sharpest  outline  the  enterprise  to  which 
we  have  set  our  hand. 

What  are  our  resources  for  this  task?  They  are  three:  Religion,  Edu- 
cation, and  what  Aristotle  called  "a  certain  Furniture  of  Fortune,"— 
the  Education  to  keep  the  Religion  from  superstition  and  fanaticism; 
the  Religion  to  keep  the  Education  from  degenerating  into  mere  intel- 
lectualism  and  skepticism;  and  the  Furniture  of  Fortune  to  house  and 
clothe  and  feed  the  heralds  and  messengers  of  the  King. 

Of  Baptist  education  I  note  three  things:  An  Error,  A  Truth,  and  A 
Caution. 

I.  The  Error. 

Quite  generally,  in  the  beginnings  of  our  history,  we  thought  religion 
without  education  a  sufficient  equipment  for  our  task.  If  there  ever 
was  or  could  be  a  pardonable  error,  here  was  one,  for  it  was  an  easy 
inference  from  our  profound  experience  of  grace.  We  believed  that 
grace  alone  was  sufficient  for  the  transformation  of  the  soul;  and  the 
training  of  the  schools  was  held  to  be  a  superfluity  and  an  extravagance 
for  those  who  already  had  the  tutoring  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

This  I  say  was  an  error,  and  that  we  have  left  it  behind  is  evidenced 
by  our  hundreds  of  educational  institutions,  and  our  seventy-five  mil- 
lions invested, — a  figure  in  which  we  probably  take  first  place  among 
Protestant  denominations.  But  we  must  never  allow  ourselves  to  con- 
temn our  earlier  stage,  or  to  forget  that,  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
true  religion  is  the  finest  and  the  mightiest  educational  agency,  the  sub- 


Saturday,  . I uiR'  24.1        UKCOh'l)  OF  l'U'<)<'IJi:i)/.\(!S.  351 

tlest  and  surest  discipline  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  character  for 
its  culture. 

II.  The  Truth. 

We  discovered  the  truth  in  a  closer  knowledge  of  the  individual,  and 
in  a  fuller  apprehension  ol  the  Lordship  of  Jesus.  We  saw  the  individual 
with  varied  powers,  all  of  which,  as  given  by  God,  were  meant  to  be 
trained,  and  no  one  of  which  could  remain  untrained  without  impairing 
the  personality  in  which  all  are  unified.  Moreover,  we  discovered  the  in- 
dividual as  a  member  of  society,  with  social  obligations  and  tasks.  We 
now  see  that  even  the  isolated  individual  needs  to  be  educated  to  know 
himself  and  God.  And  how*  much  more  the  man  who  is  set  in  edu- 
cated society  as  the  type  and  messenger  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Our  fuller  apprehension  of  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  over  all  of  life, 
over  all  areas  of  being  and  work,  leaves  us  no  alternative  but  the  high- 
est possible  training  of  all  our  people. 

We  are  a  fierce  democracy,  with  the  constant  peril  of  anarchy.  If 
George  the  Fifth  or  the  Emperor  of  Germany  should  apply  for  mem- 
bership in  a  Baptist  church,  these  distinguished  and  highly  honored  gen- 
tlemen would  have  to  leave  off  their  royal  trappings  and  be  stripped 
to  the  bax'e  humanity  in  which,  as  needing  a  Saviour  and  trusting  in 
Jesus  for  salvation,  the  humblest  peasant  in  their  realms  would  present 
himself.  Our  safety  in  such  a  democracy  is  in  these  two  correctives, 
viz.:  the  sense  that  we  are  members  one  of  another;  and  the  sense  that 
each  is  answerable  to  the  same  Lord,  who  is  Lord  of  the  intellect  as  the 
Supreme  Logos,  of  the  feelings,  as  the  Eternal  Love,  of  the  will  as  the 
source  of  all  authority  and  control;  and  who  is  these  things  for  all  man- 
kind as  well  as  for  every  man. 

These  conceptions  of  the  individual  and  of  Jesus  imply  and  compel  the 
education  of  the  individual  for  his  highest  efficiency  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  and  they  bind  us  to  our  educational  task  with  stronger  than  hooks 
of  steel. 

III.  The  Caution. 

Baptist  education  must  be  kept  true  to  these  truths.  They  are  threaten- 
ed from  two  quart ei's, — learning  and  money. 

1.  Learning:  Is  the  highest  learning  prejudicial  to  Baptist  beliefs? 
Some  say  yes  to  this  question.  If  so,  we  must  cut  short  the  process  of 
learning  and  carry  in  our  breasts  the  paralyzing  suspicion  that  if  we 
dared  to  push  our  investigations  a  stage  farther  we  should  know  all  our 
contentions  false,  and  see  the  Face  we  adored  vanish  from  our  sight  for- 
ever, a  ghastly  dethronement  indeed ! 

But  no!— 

That   Face   far  from  vanish   rather  grows, 

Or  decomposes  but  recomposes. 

Becomes  our  universe  that  sees  and  knows. 

We  take  our  stand  by  Paul  in  the  first  chapter  of  Colossians  and  join 
him  as  he  says — In  all  things  Christ  shall  have  the  preeminence. 


352  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

There  are  bi;t  three  departments  of  knowledge, — the  world  around  us, 
the  world  inside  us,  and  the  world  behind  us;  or  in  other  words,  the 
Physical  Universe,  the  Nature  of  Man,  and  History.  Suppose  now  that 
the  attempt  is  made  to  impart  the  facts  in  these  three  realms  apart  from 
the  Christian  view  of  Nature  and  Man  and  History.  Perhaps  the  most 
impressive  attempt  of  this  sort  in  the  past  forty  years  was  the  attempt 
of  Herbert  Spencer  in  his  monumental  Synthetic  Philosophy.  And  on 
the  last  pag'e  of  his  Autobiography,  Mr.  Spencer  makes  pathetic  confes- 
sion of  failure.  After  describing  the  paralyzing  thoughts  induced  by 
contemplation  of  the  mysteries  inherent  in  a  naturalistic  interpretation 
of  the  universe  he  says :  ' '  No  wonder  that  men  take  refuge  in  authori- 
tative dogma;  thus  religious  creeds I  have  come  to  regard 

with  a  sympathy  based  on  community  of  need." 

In  the  non-Christian  visAv,  the  physical  creation  is  an  unreality  or  an 
endless  becoming;  the  nature  of  man  an  unfathomable  abyss  and  history 
a  stream  whose  course  we,  that  are  but  particles  afloat  on  its  bosom, 
have  no  power  to  change. 

In  the  Christian  view,  ''the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
firmament  showeth  his  handiwork."  Christ  is  creator  and  bond  of 
union,  and  end  of  the  creation,  for,  of  him  and  through  him  and  unto 
him  are  all  things  and  in  him  all  things  consist.  The  laboratories  of 
science  are  sanctuaries  where  his  power  is  dis^^layed,  as  in  the  view  of 
that  scientist  who,  when  he  had  completed  preparation  for  an  experi- 
ment said, — ''Silence,  gentlemen,  we  are  going  to  ask  God  a  question." 
History  is  the  realm  of  the  display  of  his  providence,  and  psychology 
opens  to  US  the  fields  where  his  grace  is  made  known.  The  universe  of 
things  is  unified  in  Christ  as  Creator.  The  universe  of  persons  is  unified 
in  Christ  as  Redeemer.  The  universe  of  movements  in  Christ  as  both 
cause  and  goal.  And  apart  from  the  power  and  providence  and  grace  of 
Christ,  no  full  and  true  account  can  be  given  of  the  physical  creation, 
historj^,  or  the  nature  of  man. 

So  long  as  these  truths  are  clearly  perceived  and  held,  so  long  will 
Christian  colleges  be  maintained  by  Christian  denominations, — colleges, 
that  is,  which  are  independent  of  State  governments  and  their  aid  and 
dictation,  and  whose  work  it  will  be  to  sow  all  fields  thick  with  these 
fundamental  principles  of  a  Christian  civilization.  Better  demolish  our 
colleges  and  universities  and  seminaries,  if  they  put  in  jeopardj^,  by  their 
learning,  the  faith  of  our  fathers  in  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  and  his  sav- 
ing grace  and  power  in  the  life  of  the  believer. 

2.  Money :  I  do  not  mean  that  when  we  get  rich  we  cease  to  be  Bap- 
tists, though  there  is  suggestion  of  peril  even  here.  I  refer  to  a  local, 
and  perhaps  temporary  discrimination  against  frankly  Christian  insti- 
tutions on  the  ground  that  they  are  sectarian  and  by  consequence  not 
educational  institutions.  We  recognize  the  right  of  a  man  to  dispose  of 
his  surplus  as  he  pleases,  and  to  exclude  from  participation  in  his  bene- 
factions whomsoever  he  will,  but  we  deny  his  right  to  invite  Baptist 
institutions  to  denature  themselves  under  a  proposition  of  help  in  case 


Saturday,  June  24.]        RFA'ORn  OF  I'JWCIJEDlxaS.  353 

they  do  so  carry  their  veteran  professors.  We  deny  the  right  of  any 
man  to  call  in  question  our  competency  in  the  field  of  education  on  the 
ground  that  we  are  Christians.  Baptist  principles  are  not  a  dreadful 
virus  to  be  disinfected  out  of  the  system  of  a  college  or  university 
before  it  is  a  safe  place  for  youth;  and  in  the  name  of  John  Bunyan 
and  John  Milton  and  Koger  Williams  and  of  the  Second  Baptist  World 
Alliance  we  resent  the  suggestion  from  any  quarter  to  instal  the  disin- 
fecting machinery.  President  Pritchett,  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for 
the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  says:  "Whether  a  denominational  con- 
nection or  control  tends  to  improve  the  organization  of  a  college,  the 
re^jly  Avill  almost  universally  be  that  denominational  conditions,  such 
as  the  requirements  that  trustees  shall  belong  to  a  given  denomination, 
are  serious  limitations,  and  the  denominational  control  is  a  hindrance, 
not  a  benefit,  to  tlie  college  organization." — Second  Annual  Report,  pp. 
53-54. 

But  is  must  be  said,  as  a  concluding  word,  with  all  gravity  and  ear- 
nestness that  our  Baptist  institutions,  enshrining  as  they  do  the  great 
principles  which  we  have  hardly  more  than  touched  upon,  cannot  hold 
their  places  among  the  forces  for  the  enthronement  of  Jesus  over  all  the 
world  and  over  all  the  life  of  the  world  without  a  far  larger  and  more 
general  support  froiu  all  of  our  people.     (Long  applause.) 

The  Chairman:  Brethren,  our  speakers  have  done  well  this  morning. 
That  we  are  left  wanting  more  is  a  splendid  compliment  to  the  last 
one.  I  have  heard  it  more  than  once  suggested  that  there  has  not  been 
enough  opportunity  for  open  discussion  from  the  floor.  We  have  a  half 
hour,  and  we  have  opportunity  for  anyone  Avho  wants  to  speak  to  the 
general  question  now  to  speak.  (Cries.  ''Pot eat,  Poteat").  Those  who 
wish  to  speak  will  please  send  up  their  names  vei^y  promptly  and  we 
shall  know  how  many  wish  to. 

A  Delegate  :  While  the  cards  are  coming  up  I  suggest  that  we  give 
Dr.  Poteat  five  minutes.       (Applause.) 

Dr.  Poteat:  Mr.  President,  I  happen  to  know  that  Dr.  MacArthur  is 
bubbling  over,  and  I  know  we  should  be  delighted  to  hear  a  word  from 
Dr.  MacArthur. 

Dr.  R.  S.  MacArthur:  I  simply  arose  to  express  my  great  apprecia- 
tion of  the  admirable  addresses  of  this  morning.  This  session  has  been 
one  of  the  choicest  of  the  entire  series,  and  I  think  the  climax  was  reach- 
ed in  the  closing  address.  It  was  admirable  in  its  anal3'sis,  excellent  in 
its  expression,  and  charming  and  inspiring  in  its  religious  motive.  I  es- 
pecially appreciated  it  because  it  touched  upon  several  lines  that  I  have 
myself  followed  in  several  addresses  (Laughter)  not  that  Dr.  Poteat  fol- 
lowed me,  but  that  Ave  both  followed  truth,  and  that  Ave  both  stro\-e 
to  be  loyal  to  Him  who  is  King  in  truth's  vast  domain,  Jesus  Christ. 
(Applause.) 

23 


354  THE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

Dr.  Len  G.  Broughtok,  of  Georgia,  on  being  called  to  the  platform 
said :  Mr.  President  and  brethren  and  friends  of  the  Alliance :  This  is 
out  of  my  line,  I  am  not  an  educator,  nor  am  I  especially  noted  for  any 
amount  of  education.  But  my  heart  has  been  greatly  stirred  this  morn- 
ing by  one  note  that  has  been  touched,  because  in  that  line  I  have  given 
it  some  thought,  and  that  has  been  the  emphasis  that  has  been  placed 
upon  education  and  the  family,  and  family  life  in  the  history  of  our 
people  and  in  the  progress  of  our  civilization.  I  believe  that  to-day  we 
are  overlooking  the  vast  opportunity  that  there  is  in  family  education. 
The  other  day  a  woman  came  to  me,  a  member  of  our  church,  a  splen- 
did woman,  but  more  noted  for  sentiment  than  sense,  and  said,  "Pastor 
I  would  like  to  have  a  private  interview  with  you."  ''All  right,"  I 
said,  "when  shall  we  have  it?"  And  she  named  the  time  and  I  met  her. 
I  was  very  much  surprised  that  she  wanted  to  talk  with  me  about  enter- 
ing the  field  of  an  evangelist.  She  said,  "I  feel  specially  called  of  God 
to  do  evangelistic  work,  and  I  feel  that  I  must  do  it;  I  can't  sleep 
nights  for  this  conviction,  and  I  want  to  talk  with  you  about  it." 
"Well,"  I  said,  "I  want  to  ask  you  a  question  or  two  before  I  answer 
you."  "All  right,"  she  said.  I  said,  "Are  you  a  mother?"  "Oh, 
yes,"  she  said.  I  said,  "How  many  children  have  j'ou?"  She  said, 
"Well,  I  have  thirteen  living  and  four  dead."  I  said,  "Have  you  a 
husband  ?  "  "  Yes. "  "  Is  he  a  Christian  ?  "  "  No. "  "  Are  any  of  these 
children  saved?"  "No."  I  said,  "Then  I  think  I  am  prepared  at 
once  to  agree  with  you  that  God  has  called  you  into  the  evangelistic 
work,  and  he  has  done  for  you  what  he  has  not  done  for  any  evangelist 
I  know;  he  has  given  you  a  congregation  with  the  call."  I  believe,  my 
brethren,  that  we  are  in  great  danger  to-day  in  our  Baptist  churches  and 
in  all  our  churches  in  allowing  the  Sunday-school, — as  much  as  I  am  in- 
terested in  Sunday-school  work, — to  do  the  religious  education  that 
should  be  done  in  our  homes,  and  allowing  other  schools  to  do  the  same 
thing.  The  public  school,  the  university,  the  college,  nothing  can  take 
the  place  of  religious  education  in  the  home.     (Applause.) 

William  D.  Upshaw,  of  Georgia,  spoke  as  follows :  Brother  Chairman 
and  brethren  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance:  I  offer  no  apology  for 
sending  my  name  to  the  platform  as  one  who  wished  to  speak.  But  I 
would  not  have  offered  a  word  if  I  had  known  Dr.  Broughton  was  in 
the  audience,  for  he  is  gloriously  capable  of  filling  every  minute  left 
with  blazing  truth. 

But  I  could  not  keep  still  after  Doctor  Poteat's  marvelous  message. 
I  think  I  never  before  heard  quite  so  much  that  was  dynamic  for  God's 
truth  concerning  education  packed  into  twenty  minutes.  Doctor  Poteat's 
burning  words  struck  my  heart  with  special  power  because  I  have  passed 
through  many  of  the  things  of  which  he  speaks.  I  gave  nearly  ten  years 
of  my  life  to  the  field  work  of  endowing  and  equipping  our  great  Bap- 
tist schools  in  Georgia,  Mercer  University  and  Bessie  Tift  College,  be- 
cause I  felt  that  if  I  had  only  one  life  to  live  "between  the  two  peaks 


Saturday,  June  24.  J        RECORD  OF  I'ROCEEDINGli. 


355 


of  God's  eternity"  I  could  make  it  strike  more  angles  for  temporal  and 
eternal  good  in  Christian  education  than  in  any  other  field.  And  it  was 
only  when  I  fell  in  my  tracks  under  the  burden  of  trying  to  help  strug- 
gling boys  and  girls  to  get  an  education  under  Christian  influence  that  I 
launched  The  Golden  Age,  feeling  that  editorial  work, — the  right  kind  of 
editorial  work,— is  next  in  sacred  meaning  to  Christian  education. 

And,  bretliren,  let  me  put  into  italics  this  vital  basic  truth — a  so-called 
Christian  institution  which  apologizes  for  its  Christian  program  or  its 
denominational  alignment  has  no  right  to  exist.  Why  a  denominational 
school  anyway?  I  tell  you,  such  a  school  cumbers  the  ground  unless  it 
recognizes  the  fact  that  it  was  builded  because  its  founders  felt  that 
they  could  not  trust  the  highest  possible  training  of  their  children  into 
the'  hands  of  Caesar.  If  a  Christian  college  in  name  is  not  going  to  be 
aggressively  and  effectively  Christian  in  practice  then  our  contributions 
and  endowments  are  teaching  their  students  the  beautiful,  vital  truth 
that  education  without  religion  is  like  a  flower  without  fragrance. 

Think  of  the  picture— Baylor  University  in  Texas,  a  great  institution 
with  nearly  a  thousand  students  stops  its  superb  educational  machinery 
once  or  twice  every  year  while  students  and  faculty  for  ten  days  or  two 
weeks  put  the  emphasis  on  things  eternal.  And  thus  many  of  our 
schools  in  the  South— God  help  them  to  do  it  everywhere— seek  to  be 
true  to  the  spiritual  principles  that  gave  them  birth.     (Applause.) 

Mrs.  Gwynne,  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  spoke  as  follows:  Perhaps  you  will 
wonder  why  a  woman,  after  hearing  what  a  preceding  speaker  said  about 
a  woman  wanting  to  do  evangelistic  work,  should  want  to  have  anything 
to  say  at  all,  but  after  giving  four  years  to  Christian  work,  in  the  homes 
of  the  denomination,  I  have  now  determined  that  there  is  so  much  need 
for  Christian  education  in  the  home  that  I  am  giving  my  entire  time  in 
getting  women  together  throughout  this  country  for  Christian  industrial 
education  in  the  community,  especially  among  the  women.  I  believe  as  a 
woman  that  if  the  homes  are  to  be  raised,  if  the  homes  are  to  be  any- 
thing, if  our  women,  especially  my  women,  (Negro),  are  to  be  on  the 
Christian  line  as  they  should,  women  must  do  the  work  in  the  home. 
Unlike  many  women  I  do  not  believe  in  going  outside  my  home  to  ,work 
first,  but  everyone  that  comes  in  my  home  must  be  a  Cliristian.  In  this 
great  movement  among  women  the  first  thing  we  do  is  to  get  them  to 
read  the  Bible.  The  next  thing  is  to  teach  them  how  to  do  some  kind 
of  industrial  work.  I  want  to  voice  the  sentiments  of  all  colored  women 
throughout  this  country;  we  find  that  higher  education  does  not  suit  us 
at  this  period,  but  it  is  necessary  that  the  Christian  women  be  taught 
how  to  work  with  their  hands  and  then  to  make  their  living  and  to  edu- 
cate themselves  properly.  We  are  trying  all  over  this  country  to  get 
people  to  be  interested  in  this  community  work.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  John  W.  Million,  of  Missouri :  I  believe  I  have  no  theories  to  ex- 
ploit, but  I  agree  very  materially  and  almost  in  detail  with  many  that 


356  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

have  been  brought  out  this  morning.  If  we  are  at  all  in  doubt  as  to  the 
trend  of  education  along  the  lines  of  philosophic  thought  in  our  great 
universities,  both  on  State  support  and  on  private  foundation,  all  we 
need  to  do  is  to  go  to  the  class-room  and  sit  quietly  and  listen  to  the 
teaching  in  philosophy,  in  political  economy,  in  history,  and  in  the  na- 
tural sciences,  and  you  will  be  absolutely  converted  that  Jesus  Christ 
has  got  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it.  The  power  from  above  to  con- 
trol the  lives  and  the  thoughts  of  men,  in  a  great  many  of  these  chairs  is 
absolutely  counted  out  of  the  case ;  and  a  great  many  of  our  Baptist  peo- 
ple all  over  the  States  are  sending  their  sons  and  their  daughters  to 
these  institutions;  whether  they  know  what  is  taking  place  or  not  I  do 
not  know.  They  are  sending  to  these  institutions  in  preference  to  send- 
ing them  to  the  denominational  schools  because  the  denominational 
school  is  more  poorly  equipped. 

I  will  come  to  a  point  or  two  in  reference  to  the  family  work  and  then 
go  on  with  that  matter  of  equipment.  The  family  is  certainly  not  doing 
what  it  ought  to  do.  Each  September  we  register  our  students  some- 
what after  this  fashion :  Of  what  church  a  member,  if  not  a  member  of 
a  given  church,  give  your  preference.  And  I  am  surprised  and  amazed 
to  find  out  that  a  great  number  of  our  young  women  that  come  to  us  are 
not  members  of  any  evangelical  church ;  they  give  the  preference  of  their 
parents  but  they  themselves  are  not  members.  There  is  certainly  some- 
thing for  the  family  to  attend  to. 

Now,  how  shall  we  who  are  in  denominational  school-work  compete 
successfully  if  possible  with  those  larger  institutions?  You  must  pro- 
vide the  funds  so  that  these  denominational  institutions  may  have  the 
equipment,  libraries  and  laboratories,  and  rooms  and  buildings  and  if 
you  don't  do  it  you  might  just  as  well  make  up  your  minds  that  all  of 
this  talk  on  this  platform  is  the  pleasant  exercise  of  sentiment  and  we 
will  get  no  results. 

To  illustrate  the  growth  of  Missouri  State  University:  About  flfteenj 
years  ago  it  had  an  income  by  State  appropriation  of  a  fund  which 
would  mean  five  per  cent  interest  on  two  million  dollars;  to-day  it  has 
an  appropriation  from  the  State  which  means  five  per  cent  on  about 
twelve  million  dollars.  You  say  we  people  who  are  running  institutions, 
whose  endowment  funds  are  not  half  so  large  as  the  annual  expendi- 
ture of  these  institutions,  can  compete  with  them.  We  cannot,  it  is  an 
absolute  impossibility,  and  you  as  Baptist  parents  say  so,  because  you 
send  to  the  State  institution  rather  than  to  the  institution  of  private 
endowment,  because  its  facilities  are  not  what  they  ought  to  be. 

A  Delegate  :  I  have  no  desire  to  make  a  speech,  but  I  am  profoundly 
interested  in  these  questions.  There  is  a  gentleman  on  the  floor  who  is 
too  modest  to  send  his  card  to  the  platform ;  he  is  another  Poteat,  W.  L. 
Poteat,  president  of  Furman  University.  I  hope  we  will  hear  from  him 
now. 

Dr.  Poteat  declined  to  respond. 


Saturday,  June  24.]        RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  357 

The  Ciiaikman:  Is  there  any  other  member  who  wishes  to  take  part  iu 
this  discussion?  It  is  one  of  the  subjects  that  we  realize  is  important  and 
it  has  been  put  before  us  by  the  last  speaker  that  if  we  do  not  want  our 
children  driven  away  from  our  faith  we  must  see  to  it  that  we  keep  up 
our  denominational  institutions, 

Mr.  Chandler,  of  Columbus:  I  want  to  give  tribute  to  two  women. 
I  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  education  in  the  home,  but  this  morn- 
ing I  remember  my  mother,  who,  at  seventy-eight,  rises  every  morning 
at  four  o'clock  and  prays  for  her  son  that  he  might  be  successful  as  a 
gospel  minister,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  need  of  prayer  is  what  we 
ought  to  emphasize  in  the  home.  Earnest  prayer  for  the  conversion  of 
the  children  and  earnest  and  prayerful  reading  of  God's  word.  That 
woman  Avhom  I  wish  to  honor  is  Sarah  Chandler,  the  grand-daughter  of 
a  Revolutionary  soldier.  The  other  woman  is  Joanna  P.  Moore,  "Mother 
Sunshine,"  who  has  been  going  all  over  this  country,  the  first  mission- 
ary among  the  Negroes  of  this  country,  who  has  taught  our  people  how 
to  read  their  daily  Bible  lessons  and  how  to  live  as  dutiful  Christians  in 
the  home,  and  bring  not  only  their  own  children  to  the  Saviour  but  the 
children  of  the  community.  These  two  women  I  hold  most  highly. 
Mother  Chandler  and  Mother  Sunshine  Moore.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Prestridge  announced  the  following  as  the  Committee  of  Fifteen 
appointed  by  the  President  in  accordance  Avith  the  resolution  adopted 
this  morning.     (See  page  xvi.) 

After  announcements  the  session  adjourned  with  the  benediction  pro- 
nounced by  Dr.  MacArthur. 


TWELFTH  SESSION. 

Saturday  Evening,  June  24,  1911. 
Session  opened  at  7.45  with  devotional  service  led  by  Rev.  W.  W.  B. 
Emery,  of  England. 

Hymn,  ''I  Love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord." 

Scripture  i-eading. 

Hymn,  "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name." 

President  Clifford  occupied  the  chair  for  the  session. 

The  following  reply  from  President  Taf t  was  presented  to  the  meeting : 

The  White  House,  Washington,  June  22,  1911. 
Gentlemen  : 

The  President  and  Mrs.  Tait  were  greatly  gratified  to  receive  your 
telegram  of  June  19th,  and  request  me  to  convey  to  you  an  expression  of 


358  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

their  deep  appreciation  of,  and  cordial  thanks,  for  your  kind  words  of 
congratulation  and  felicitation. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Charles  D.  Hilles, 
Secretary  to  the  President. 
The  World's  Baptist  Alliance, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  following  communication  from  President  Taft  inadvertently  did 
not  find  place  in  its  proper  connection.  It  is  therefore  given  at  this  point. 

— [Editor.] 

The  White  House,  Washington,  June  20,  1911. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

The  President  requests  me  to  thank  you  cordially  for  the  kind  invita- 
tion which  you  extend  to  him  to  attend  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  now 
in  session  in  Philadelphia,  and  to  express  his  regret  that  his  engage- 
ments are  such  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  accept. 

Prior  to  the  receipt  of  your  letter  I  had  fixed  an  engagement  for  the 
delegates  to  the  Alliance  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  President  at  2.30 
P.  M.,  Monday,  June  26th,  at  the  White  House, 
Very  truly  yours, 

Charles  D.  Hilles, 
Secretary  of  the  President. 
Mr.  J.  N.  Prestridge, 

Baptist  World  Alliance, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

It  was  announced  to  the  Alliance  that  a  Women's  Committee  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance  had  been  formed  during  the  present  Congress. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  the  members  of  the  Alliance  to  know  that  the 
Women's  Committee  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  has  been  formed 
during  these  meeting's,  to  draw  together  the  leaders  of  Baptist  Women's 
Missionary  Work  in  all  lands.     The  officers  of  the  committee  are : 

Chairman,  Mrs.  Andrew  MacLeish,  Chicago. 

Vice-Chairman,  Mrs.  M.  C.  Kerry,  London. 

Secretary,  Miss  Edith  Campbell  Crane,  Baltimore. 

The  Chairman:  The  subject  for  this  evening  is  "'The  Church  and  In- 
dustrialism. ' ' 

Mr.  K.  S.  Gray,  of  New  Zealand,  delivered  the  following  address : 


Saturday,  .Iniif  24.]        RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  359 

THE  CHURCH  AND  WORKINGMEN. 
By  Rev.  R.  S.  GRAY. 

The  trend  of  Cliristian  thoug'ht  in  the  direction  of  this  subject  is  one 
of  the  most  liopeful  signs  of  the  jDresent  day.  Time  was,  and  very  re- 
centl}',  when  churches  and  church  councils  alike  seemed  oblivious  of  the 
existence  of  any  such  aspect  of  Christianity.  That  day  if  it  has  not 
already  passed  is  speeding  to  its  close. 

It  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  this  church  should  face  this  problem.  We 
are  a  democracy,  a  theocratic  democracy.  For  many  reasons  which  are 
obvious  to  you,  we  should  be  the  church  of  the  people.  Four-fifths  of 
our  population  are  working  men.  This  question  is  finally  a  question  of 
the  people  and  the  church's  relation  to  them.  It  is  therefore  our  ques- 
tion. 

Academic  discussion  of  it  is  worse  than  useless.  It  is  a  problem  de- 
manding solution.  In  view  of  the  ascertainable  facts,  the  persistence 
of  a  policy  of  laissez-faire  or  of  ignorance  is  alike  criminal. 

It  may  or  may  not  be  necessary  to  say  preliminarily — let  it  be  said 
briefly  but  emphatically,  first,  that  the  interest  of  the  church  in  this 
question  is  not  prompted  by  any  mistaken  notion  that  the  working 
class  is  more  deeply  than  any  other  in  need  of  the  regenerating 
spiritual  influences  of  the  church.  The  moral  standard  of  the  working 
man  suffers  nothing  by  comparison  with  that  of  the  class 
which  stands  at  the  other  extreme  of  the  social  scale.  The  gambling, 
the  immorality,  the  Sabbath  desecration,  the  flaunting  disregard  of  God 
and  man  which  characterizes  so  much  of  the  high  life  of  our  civilization, 
is  certainlj^  not  exceeded  in  any  of  its  lower  reaches.  And  second,  that 
the  church  attacks  this  pi'oblem  not  in  a  vain  hope  that  she  may  reha- 
bilitate herself  in  the  eyes  of  men,  nor,  seeing  the  inevitable  tendency 
of  the  movement  outside  herself,  that  she  may  recover  a  lost  position 
to  use  it  for  self-aggrandizement,  but  only  that  she  may  be  true  to  the 
spirit  of  her  great  Head. 

Superficially,  the  question  is,  ''What  attitude  the  church  can,  and 
should,  and  will,  take  towards  the  efforts  of  workingmen  to  improve  their 
industrial  conditions?"  It  is  in  reality  a  much  deeper  question  than 
that.  It  is  not  whether  the  church  can,  consistently  with  her  high  spir- 
itual office,  enter  the  arena  of  industrial  conflict.  It  is  a  matter  of  her 
own  consistency  with  the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  mistake  altogether  the  inwardness  of  the  present  position  if  we 
imagine  that  all  that  workingmen  desire  is  the  advocacy  b}^  the  church 
of  their  industrial  claims.  There  is  co-related  to  this  question  of  In- 
dustrialism and  the  chui'ch  's  attitude  to  it,  and  standing  in  such  vital  re- 
lationship that  they  may  not  be  separated,  the  great  question  of  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  church  herself.  It  is  not  by  accident — it  is  the  hand  of 
God — that  the  church  is  face  to  face  with  this  movement  of  the  people 
and  at  the  same  time  with  her  own  arrested  development. 

What  are  the  facts!  The  church  was  built  of  the  people.  They  heard 
Him  gladly.  His  church  was  intended  and  was  fitted  to  reach  and  to  hold 
them.  In  the  day  of  her  pristine  power  and  in  her  many  renaissances  she 
fulfilled  her  end.  She  is  failing  now.  It  is  worse  than  idle  to  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  facts.  Whatever  attitude  workingmen  may  adopt  towards 
Jesus  Christ  and  Christianity,  however  far  it  may  be  true  that  the  ben- 


360  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

eflcent  trend  of  public  thought  and  legislation  is  due  to  the  influence 
of  His  principles  disseminated  through  the  church,  the  church  herself 
is  unmistakably  losing  her  hold  upon  the  people.  Church  attendance  is 
a  steadily  diminishing  quantity.  Probably  not  more  than  one  in  five, 
certainly  not  more  than  one  in  four  of  the  population  are  church-goers. 
In  all  the  great  cities,  despite  increasing  populations,  there  stand  empty 
and  half-empty  churches.  Crowded  churches  are  the  exception,  crowded 
streets  and  places  of  amusement  the  rule,  and  this  in  spite  of  much 
elaborate  occasional  and  permanent  effort  to  reach  the  masses.  Church 
membership  is  in  an  almost  equally  unsatisfactoi'y  condition.  Increased 
machinery,  additional  churches,  ministers  and  Sunday-school  teachers 
fail  to  make  proportionate,  and,  in  many  cases,  any,  increase  in  mem- 
bership either  of  church  or  school.  In  the  United  Kingdom  in  four 
years  our  own  church  has  lost  16,000  members.  The  Congregational 
Church  reports  a  decrease  last  year  of  nearly  1,400.  The  Methodist  fig- 
ures are  equally  disquieting,  and  if  drastic  or  even  serious  revision  of 
our  church  rolls  were  the  inexorable  rule,  the  figures  would  be  more 
alarming  still.  It  is  no  reply  to  say  that  there  are  special  reasons  for 
this  decrease,  which  is  after  all  but  temporary.  Our  usual  miserably 
inadequate  additions  differ  only  fractionally  from  actual  loss. 

Wliy  is  this  so?  Is  it  to  be  explained  by  weakly  attributing  it  to  the 
absence  of  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  is  it  to  be  remedied  by 
our  ordinary  or  extraordinary  evangelistic  effort,  or  is  there  a  definite 
cause  and  an  equally  definite  remedy,  dependent  no  less  upon  the  Spirit 
than  those  we  now  seek  to  apply? 

The  people,  who  should  constitute  the  church,  are  not  slow  to  an- 
swer. Their  attitude  is  not  to  be  explained  by  vaguely  referring  it  to 
indifference,  even  though,  elevating  a  symptom  into  a  cause,  we  label  it 
as  though  it  were  a  new  cult,  Indifferentism.  It  is  not  merely  the  result 
of  a  general  insensibility  to  the  spiritual,  or  of  a  natural  indisposition 
to  face  the  obligations  of  a  high  and  stern  morality.  In  many  cases  it  is 
simply  that.  Many  working  men  are  content  to-morrow  to  die— if  to-day 
they  may  eat  and  drink !  But  thoughtful  working  men  not  only  declare 
the  church  to  be  valueless,  they  believe  her  to  be  false.  They  charge  her 
with  failing  to  put  into  practice  the  principles  she  declares.  She  is  part 
of  a  social  order  which,  because  of  this  failure,  is  notoriously  unjust. 
They  believe  that  her  rare  and  feeble  efforts  to  alter  these  conditions 
are  abortive  because  of  her  complicity  with  them.  They  believe  in  the 
statement  made  by  an  authority  on  this  subject,  made  with  no  bias 
against  Christianity,  that  '^  parsons,  churchgoers  and  church  organiza- 
tions have  opposed  Factory  Acts,  Free  Education,  Poor  Law  Reform, 
Old  Age  Pensions,  Housing  Reform,  Electoral  Reform,  Temperance  Re- 
form, and  Labor  Legislation  on  behalf  of  the  oppressed,"  and  that 
"whatever  social  emancipation  labor  has  won  has  been  not  only  without 
the  churches,  but  often  in  spite  of  them."*  They  do  not  recognize 
in  her  the  exi:)ression  of  the  mind  and  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ.  Indif- 
ference crystallizes  into  criticism,  criticism  into  hostility. 

They  ask  whether  the  church  has  not  given  herself  to  the  declaration 
and  emphasis  of  doctrines  many  of  which  seem  to  have  little  or  no  bear- 
ing upon  the  actual  life  of  the  average  man  and  left  without  interpre- 

*George  Haw  in  "Christianity  and  the  Working  Classes." 


Saturday,  June  24.]        h'lJCOh'lJ  OF  I'J,'<)(U:i:i)/\(JH.  3G1 

tiition  or  insistence  upon  their  aiJi)lic'ati(»n,  the  great  principles  laid 
clown  by  Jesus  Christ.  Has  she  not  concerned  herself  with 
the  unseen,  the  future,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  the  pressing  present? 
Has  she  not  allowed  the  luxury  and  artificiality  of  modern  civilization, 
against  which  she  should  have  protested,  and  which  she  should  have 
prevented,  to  enter  into  her  very  sanctuary,  and  begin  to  absorb  her? 
Has  it  not  become  true  that  the  difficulty  of  a  rich  man  entering  into  the 
kingdom  of  God,  if  Jesus  is  to  be  believed,  must  surely  be  in  inverse 
ratio  to  that  of  his  entering  into  and  becoming  influential  in  the  church? 
Is  it  not  true  that  the  kingdom  of  God  may  belong  to  the  poor,  but  if  so, 
the  church  and  the  kingdom  can  be,  in  no  sense,  synonymous?  Does  the 
church  not  only  not  condemn  inordinate  Avealth  existing  side  by  side  with 
gross  poverty,  but  condone  and  approve  it?  Is  there  not  one  type  of 
church  and  minister  and  salary  for  the  rich  and  another  for  the  poor? 
Is  not  the  difference  between  the  average  Christian  business  man  and 
the  average  non-Christian,  both  as  to  aim  and  method — and  for  the  mat- 
ter of  that — between  Christian  and  non-Christian  employes  so  infinitesi- 
mal as  to  be  practically  nonexistent  ? 

Are  not  preachers  more  often  priests  than  prophets,  concerned  more  to 
maintain  an  official  institution  than  to  conserve  and  express  its  essen- 
tial spirit  ? 

In  a  word,  is  there  not  a  deep  and  desperate  disparity  between  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christ  and  the  practice  of  His  followers  both  individually  and 
corporately?  These  and  kindred  charges  are  made.  Are  they  in  any  ap- 
preciable degree  true?  They  are  soberly  advanced  as  the  cause  of  the 
alienation  of  the  workers  from  the  church.  They  can  no  longer  be 
treated  as  the  vagaries  of  diseased  minds  or  the  foolish  vaporings  of 
demagogues.  Earnest,  sincere,  good  men,  with  a  passion  for  their  fel- 
lows, and  a  great  reverence  for  Christ,  believe  them  to  be  true.  They 
cannot  be  ignored.  They  cannot  be  dismissed  in  a  phrase  or  an  epigram. 
They  bear  so  much  semblance  to  truth  that  they  must  be  answered.  The 
church  has  herself  furnished  the  standard  by  which  she  is  being  judged. 
It  is  she  who  has  declared  the  principles  of  Christ  and  by  the  words  of 
her  mouth  men  judge  her.  If  they  are  true,  and  until  we  can  demon- 
strate their  untruth,  the  mere  advocacj'  by  the  church  of  improved  in- 
dustrial conditions  would  but  aggravate  the  problem.  One  of  the  sanest 
and  strongest  labor  leaders  in  the  world,  J.  Ramsay  Macdonald,  M.  P., 
says:  "The  function  of  the  church  is  not  to  become  the  world  but  to 
inspire  the  world,  the  duty  of  the  preachers  not  to  propound  a  scientific 
sociology,  but  to  infuse  tlie  right  spirit  of  eternal  goodness  in  all  soci- 
ologies ;  the  work  of  the  church  is  not  to  support  any  one  of  the  active 
interests  but  to  keep  all  the  conflicting  interests  in  spiritual  touch  with 
the  divine  idea  which  is  unfolding  itself  by  the  movements  and  conflicts 
which  form  the  subject  matter  of  human  sociology." 

That  the  church  is  the  interpreter  of  God  to  man,  that  she  must  stand 
for  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual,  and  that  all  her  doctrines  declaring 
and  emphasizing  this  are  paramount,  none  of  us  will  be  found 
to  deny.  She  has.  however,  not  only  often  taught  a  monastic  and  exotic 
spirituality,  but  she  has  failed  to  discriminate  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  future,  and  we  have  not  yet  escaped  from  the  influence  of  the  period 
in  which  this  misplaced  emphasis  excluded  every  other.  The  most  cur- 
sory view  of  the  state  of  the  world  and  the  church  gives  point  to  the 
charge   that    the   principles   of   Jesus   Christ    are   not    deeply   operative. 


362  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

''Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  By  this  shall  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another.  If  any  man  would 
be  my  disciple  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and  fol- 
low Me.  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasure  upon  earth — but  lay  up  for 
yourselves  treasure  in  heaven.  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon. ' '  Has 
the  church  insisted  upon  men  loving  their  neighbors  as  themselves — or 
upon  true  brotherhood,  or  self-denial,  or  disregard  of  wealth*?  Let  the 
state  of  the  world  and  the  church  itself  answer.  She  has  made  the  word 
of  the  Lord  permissive  instead  of  obligatory.  She  has  been  content  to 
enunciate  the  principle  without  interpreting  and  applying  it.  She  has 
compromised  her  position  by  tacitly  accepting  and  perpetuating  a  lowered 
standard  until  the  words  of  her  own  Lord  are  justly  used  against  her. 
There  is  a  love  of  one's  neighbor  which  is  peculiar  to  Christianity  but 
if  any  of  us  would  argue  that  it  even  approximately  fulfils  Christ 's  defi- 
nition, the  poverty  which  is  the  shame  of  our  Christianity  and  the  de- 
spair of  our  civilization  leaps  to  answer  us.  None  of  us  has  any  doubt 
that  it  is  contrary  to  this  essential  law  of  Christ's  kingdom  that  millions 
of  workers  should  be,  in  sjaite  of  body  and  soul  deadening  toil,  below  the 
poverty  line;  that  men  desirous  to  work  should  be  denied  the  com- 
mon right;  that  almost  every  agricultural  laborer  in  England  should 
die  a  pauper:  that  tens  of  thousands  of  little  children  should,  every 
night,  go  hungry  to  bed,  and  every  day  hungry  to  school :  that  women 
should  be  sweated  to  death  and  driven  to  shame  in  order  to  push  back 
grim  want.  And  this  is  not  cheap  rhetoric.  A  competent  authority',  the 
wife  of  one  of  our  Supreme  Court  Judges,  a  Avorker  among  women,  and 
an  ardent  Prohibitionist,  assured  me  that  for  urgency  England's  prob- 
lem is  not  Temperance  Reform  but  the  altered  industrial  lot  of  women. 
She  declares  the  immorality  arising  directly  from  sweating  to  be  appall- 
ing. The  moral  sense  itself  is  being  destroyed  in  both  men  and  women. 
Women  declare  shamelessly  their  method  of  adding  to  their  sweated 
wages,  while  men  boast  of  the  cheapness  of  women.  Christian  England's 
problem  is  Christian  America's  problem.  None  of  us  has  any  doubt  that 
the  conditions  of  child  labor  in  Christian  lands  are  abhorrent  to  the  mind 
of  Christ.  And  all  this  and  much  more  exists  while  wealth  flaunts  itself 
in  selfish  arrogance,  the  wealth  not  only  of  non-Christian  men  but  of 
members  of  the  Christian  churches.  We  know  this  to  be  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  laAv  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  yet  the  church  acquiesces  in 
it.  Yes !  for  she  could  alter  it  if  she  would.  There  is  no  Christian  land  in 
the  wide  world  in  which,  if  they  Avould,  the  professedly  Christian  men 
and  women  could  not  insist  on  an  immediate  and  practical  reform  in  all 
these  matters.  It  would  involve  personal  as  Avell  as  legislative  action, 
and  that  is  the  crux  of  the  problem.  The  implication  is  that  the  princi- 
ples of  Christ  are  either  inefficient  or  inoperative.  They  are  not  ineffi- 
cient. They  must  be  applied  and  the  church  must  insist  upon  their  ap- 
plication to  every  detail  of  individual,  social  and  national  life.  This  is 
not  Socialism.  There  Avould  be  no  such  thing  as  Socialism  if  Christianity 
were  Christian. 

What  can  the  church  do?  She  must  make  herself  in  the  meantime  the 
welcome  home  of  the  poor.  She  must  dissociate  herself  from  the  osten- 
tation of  Avealth  or  position  which  are  incompatible  Avith  the  essential 
spirit  of  the  Master.  She  must  actualize  and  j^erpetuate  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord's  Table  which  in  her  first  days  destroyed  class  distinction,  and 
exhibited  the  brotherhood  of  man  to  the  Avorld.     She  must  draw  the  sting 


Saturday,  June  24.]       RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  363 

out  of  the  charge  that  organized  Christianity  is  ''dependent  upon  men  of 
means  if  not  subservient  to  them.  She  must  insist  on  the  truth  of  stew- 
ardship and  roll  back  the  reproach  that  the  causes  of  God,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  languish  for  lack  of  funds  while  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the 
church  is  almost  incalculable.  She  must  insist  that  there  is  one  great 
law  of  stewardship  applicable  to  all  possessions  and  equally  binding 
upon  all  men — the  business  man  as  well  as  the  minister — and  that  there  is 
no  warrant  stated  or  implied  in  the  teachings  of  Christ  for  the  personal 
accumulation  of  wealth  by  either,  and  certainly  none  for  the  facilely 
accepted  position  that  one  may  lap  himself  and  his  in  all  luxury  and 
leave  the  other  often  in  absolute  poverty.  Self-denial  was  not  intended 
to  be  the  exclusive  privilege  of  ministers  of  small  churches  and  other  poor 
people.  She  must  lift  her  voice  against  Trusts  and  Combines  and  all 
their  concomitant  evils.  Their  condemnation  must  not  be  left  to  labor 
and  other  governments,  and  if  they  are  held  to  be  the  legitimate  out- 
come of  the  present  system,  she  must  condemn  that.  In  a  word,  she  must 
be  consistent.     She  must  preach  and  teach  and  insist  upon  reality. 

All  these  things  it  is  right  to  say  to  the  church.  They  are  preliminary 
to  any  effective  effort  she  can  make  in  solving  this  dual  problem. 

There  are  also  many  things  which  must  be  said  to  the  working  man. 

He  must  be  given  credit  for  his  advocacy  of  great  reforms,  for  his 
demand  for  the  protection  of  children,  the  equal  payment  of  women,  the 
abolition  of  sweating,  the  better  housing  of  the  poor,  his  persistent  ad- 
herence to  the  cause  of  universal  peace  and  for  the  service  he  has  done 
the  church  herself  by  insisting  that  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  the  corol- 
laiy  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  But  he  must  be  compelled  to  recognize 
the  service  which,  in  spite  of  its  defects,  real  and  imagined,  the  church 
has  rendered  him  and  his  cause.  He  must  not  be  allowed 
to  forget  the  fundamental  difference  between  Christian  and  non- 
Christian  civilizations,  nor  that  the  civil  and  religious  liberty  which 
allows  this  very  agitation  and  attitude  is  the  product  of  the  principles 
of  Christ,  taught  and  interpreted  by  the  word,  and  vitalized  and  sealed 
by  the  blood  of  the  church.  And  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  he  must  be 
told  in  the  words  of  the  historian  that  "The  lamp  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  in  England  was  first  lighted  in  an  obscure  Baptist  congregation 
somewhere  in  London."  He  must  discriminate  between  the  action  of 
the  Bishops  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  that  of  the  churches  Avhich,  in 
the  interests  of  liberty,  again  and  again  withstood  them.  He  must, 
above  all,  take  into  account  the  fact  that  the  church  consists  of  fallible 
men,  that  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  developmental,  evolu- 
tional, and  that,  in  spite  of  all  failure  and  inconsistency,  one  grand  in- 
creasing purpose  marches  towards  the  ideals  of  The  Kingdom.  Tf  he 
•will  have  concrete  instances,  he  must  be  told  that  Free  Education, 
Poor  Law  Reform,  Temperance  Legislation,  Old  Age  Pensions  and 
Workmen's  Insurance  Bills  and  all  kindred  measures  are  the  product, 
finally,  not  of  economic  agitation,  but  of  the  essential  spirit  of  Christi- 
anity diffused  by  the  church.  He  must  be  taught  that  permanently  satis- 
factory industrial  conditions  and  social  regeneration  are  impossible 
without  Christianity;  that  any  materialistic  scheme  is  a  rock  in  the 
sky;  that  change  of  environment  will  not  produce  fundamental  change 
of  character;  that  brotherhood  cannot  be  superimposed;  it  is  organic; 
that  it  is  produced  by  growth,  not  by  accretion ;  that  a  changed  heart 
is  the  pre-requisite  to  a  changed  life,  whether  individual  or  collective. 


364  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Aiid  the  church  must  be  prepared,  by  changed  lives  producing  changed 
conditions,  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  and  the  reality  of  this.  It  is 
fatuous  to  iterate  and  reiterate  that  social  reformation  is  dependent  upon 
individual  regeneration  if  the  individually  regenerate  do  not  reform  the 
social  order. 

How  is  the  working  man  to  be  told  all  this  and  more?  How  is  he  to 
get  opportunity  to  speak  back? — for  he  must  be  allowed  to  speak  back. 
In  my  own  country,  where  the  aggravated  conditions  I  have  refeiTed  to 
are  not  so  acute,  working  men  are  still  alienated  from  the  church — -and 
there  they  are  not  willing  simply  to  be  spoken  to.  They  will  come  to 
discuss  this,  and  any  kindred  problems;  and  if  there  should  be  any  min- 
ister present  doubtful  of  the  facts  and  willing  to  gather  them  at  first 
hand,  let  him  try  the  experiment  of  inviting  workmen  to  meet  him  and 
his  people  on  a  Sunday  evening  after  church  service,  to  discuss  the 
question.  The  experiment  in  my  own  church  was  justified  from  every 
standpoint. 

The  misunderstandings  which  aggravate  the  alienation  must  be  removed. 
The  church  and  the  working  men  must  meet.  There  must  be  conference. 
The  method  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  country  has  abundantly 
justified  itself.  The  Rev.  Chas.  Stelzle's  work  is  invaluable.  The  fact 
that  as  a  result  of  his  efforts  through  the  Department  of  Church  Labor 
''more  labor  sermons  were  preached  on  the  Sunday  before  last  Labor  Day 
than  on  any  other  single  day  in  the  histoiy  of  the  Christian  Church," 
and  that  more  working  men  attended  church  than  on  any  other  day  since 
the  advent  of  the  modern  Trades  Union  movement,  that  the  press  of  the 
country  and  the  labor  press  alike,  devoted  columns  to  the  uttei'ances  of 
the  ministers;  that  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  pursuance  of  this  policy 
has  appointed  local  committees  for  the  purpose  of  making  systematic 
study  of  the  subject,  and  that  in  a  great  number  of  cities,  the  Ministers' 
Associations  and  Labor  Unions  exchange  fraternal  delegates  is  striking 
testimony  to  the  success  of  this  one  experiment.  This  example  should 
be  followed.  The  organized  attempt  of  the  church  to  understand  the 
working  man  and  his  aims  will  do  what  individual  effort  never  can.  It 
is  a  department  of  our  service.  Industrial  conditions  are  subject  and 
amenable  to  the  principles  of  Christ.  We  are  the  custodians  of  these 
principles.  We  must  be  prepared  to  study  their  application,  and  to 
apply  them. 

But  we  can  do  more.  This  Congress  has  been,  to  every  delegate,  an 
immeasurable  privilege.  If  its  effect  on  the  work  of  the  church  is  at  all 
commensurate  with  the  inspiration  of  its  meetings  it  will  write  its  name 
deep  in  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

What,  think  you,  would  be  the  effect  of  such  another  Congress,  met  to 
consider  this  one  problem,  the  problem  of  the  church  herself,  and  of 
her  relation  to  the  working  man?  It  cries  for  consideration.  It  stands 
in  the  path  of  all  her  advance.  Her  home-work  languishes  from  it,  and 
in  herself  and  in  the  results  of  her  work  in  Christian  lands  she  presents 
to  non-Christian  nations  no  fair  expression  of  the  true  Church  of 
Christ.  I  dare  to  say  that  if,  for  the  time  being,  she  ceased  from 
other  considerations  and  gave  herself  to  the  study  an(J  the  solution  of 
this  supreme  problem,  and  if,  as  a  result,  she  brought  herself  into  line 
with,  not  the  working  classes,  but  the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ,  she 
would  arise  upon  the  world  with  irresistible  force. 

No  one  of  us  will  decry  true  evangelistic  effort.     It  has  accomplished 


Saturday.  June  24. 1        h'EVOND  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  365 

much.  Many  of  us  owe  the  heginnings  of  our  Christian  life  to  it;  but 
its  results  in  this  connection  are  totally  inadequate.  Comparatively  lew 
working  men  outside  the  church  are  reached.  The  great  result  of  the 
Ciiapnian-Alexander  Mission  in  Melbourne,  when  some  ten  to  twelve 
thousand  pi'ofessed  conversion,  was  phenomenal  in  one  aspect  only.  It 
was  altogether  insignificant,  as  an  attempt  to  bring  the  masses  into  the 
church,  in  view  of  the  population  of  half  a  million,  of  the  number  of 
workers  and  churches,  and  of  tlie  illimitable  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  the  same  is  true  of  every  other  such  mission.  May  it  not  be  true 
that  the  time  has  come  for  judgment  to  begin  at  the  House  of  God? 
AYould  it  not  be  of  immeasurably  greater  permanent  advantage  to 
ethically  evangelize  the  church,  until  she  is  purged  from  all  com- 
plicity with  industrial  and  social  as  well  as  personal  evil,  until  she  be- 
come'more  appreciably,  at  least,  the  embodiment  of  the  principles  of 
Jesus  Christ?  The  cause  of  God  would  not  languish  in  the  meantime. 
She  would  exercise  the  irresistible  attraction  of  righteousness — and  at 
home  and  abroad  men  would  flock  to  her  gates. 

This  is  her  great  opportunity.  The  present  conditions  challenge 
immediate  action.  The  working  classes  are  sensible  of  their  power. 
Where  they  have  not  already  gained  it,  they  are  demanding  the  fran- 
chise. They  are  educating  themselves.  They  are  coming  to  their  king- 
dom. Nothing  can,  and  nothing  should,  prevent  them.  What  manner 
of  kingdom  will  it  be  ?  Will  it  be  based  upon  the  materialistic  ideals  of 
non-Christian  and  anti-Christian  men— and  will  they  build  Babylon— 
or  will  they  be  won  to  the  principles  and  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  build  Jerusalem?  That  depends  upon  the  church— and  on  that  the 
church  depends.  The  peril  of  the  East  which,  it  is  said,  threatens  the 
West  is  to  be  met  not  politically,  but  religiously.  The  peril  of  the  West 
which  threatens  the  West  is  to  be  met  not  politically  but  religiously.  In 
both  eases  the  church  must  again  cross  the  Danube  and  capture  to  the 
banner  of  Christ  the  advancing  hosts. 

The  industrial  question  is  a  religious  question.  The  church  must  an- 
swer it.  She  must  not  leave  it  to  labor  men.  It  is  her  question  first. 
She  must  lead  and  not  follow.  Her  business  men  must  be  asked  to  de- 
vote themselves  in  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  for  the  sake  of  the  church  to 
this  question  and  to  bring  to  bear  upon  it  the  intelligence,  the  business 
acumen,  the  concentration  and  unwearied  zeal  which  they  devote  to  the 
accumulation  of  private  wealth.  They  must  be  asked  whether  it  is  pos- 
sible for  them  to  adopt,  and  where  already  adopted,  to  extend  the  opera- 
tions of  any  co-operative  system  by  which  the  evils  of  competition  will 
be  lessened!  And  if  in  their  judgment,  as  doubtless  will  be  the  case,  it 
is  held  to  be  impossible  in  the  present  order  of  society  to  fully  apply 
the  principles  of  Christ,  the  church  must  alter  the  present  order. 

She  must  make  opportunity  in  local  church  and  district  council  and 
World  Congress  for  effective 'consideration  of  their  reports,  and  no  fear 
of  conflicting  private  interests  must  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way. 
There  are  great  and  practical  ditTiculties  but  they  are  not  insuperable. 
I  repeat  this  is  peculiarly  our  question.  We  are  a  democracy,  a  theo- 
cratic democracy.  We  have  deliberately  abandoned  both  the  monar- 
chical and  the  aristocratic  form  of  church  government.  We  stand  for 
the  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  by  the  people,  subject 
only  to  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  Christ.  God  raised  us  up  to  be  the  her- 
ald's of  the  great  trutli  which  has  li))erated,  and  is  enfranchising  the  peo- 


366  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

pie.  We  believe  it  to  be  peculiarly  our  privilege  to  fully  represent  the 
Church  of  Christ  to  the  world.  We  have  had  visions  of  such  a  church 
baptized  again  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.  We  must  acknowledge 
the  vision.  He  will  not  fail  nor  be  discouraged  until  He  has  set  judgment 
in  the  earth.  Nor  shall  we! 
I  remember  well 

One  journey,  how  I  feared  the  track  was  missed 

So  long  the  city  I  desired  to  reach 

Lay  hid;  when  suddenly  its  spires  afar 

Flashed  through  the  circling  clouds;  you  may  conceive 

My  transport.     Soon  the  vajjors  closed  again; 

But  I  had  seen  the  City,  and  one  such  glance. 

No  darkness  could  obscure,  nor  shall  the  present 

Destroy  the  vivid  memories  of  the  past. 

We  will  fight  the  battle  out. 

Frank  M.  Goodchild,  of  New  York,  delivered  the  following  address: 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WORKING  WOMAN. 
By  FRANK  M.  GOODCHILD,  D.  D.,  New  York. 

The  history  of  labor  is  a  long  story  of  oppression  of  various  sorts 
from  which  the  workingman  is  slowly  but  surely  emerging.  There  is  no 
land  in  which  the  workingman  has  as  yet  come  to  his  own.  This  op- 
pression finds  its  root  in  an  opinion  that  is  still  prevalent  almost  every- 
where, that  merely  to  work  for  one's  living  makes  one  a  social  inferior. 
And  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  there  are  a  good  many  signs  that  the  work- 
ingman himself  all  too  often  concurs  in  this  false  judgment. 

The  history  of  woman  is  a  story  of  various  sorts  of  oppression.  There 
is  no  land  on  earth  in  which  wonaan  has  as  yet  come  to  her  full  rights. 
Plato  thanked  the  gods  for  eight  favors,  the  second  of  which  was  that 
he  was  not  a  woman.  The  devout  Jew  of  Christ's  time  offered  the  same 
sort  of  thanksgiving.  And  in  the  twentieth  century  after  Christ  we 
have  not  yet  outgrown  that  feeling.  It  has  been  said  a  good  many 
times  that  the  American  woman  is  the  most  favored  creature  on  God's 
earth.  And  yet  the  lords  of  creation  here  have  such  a  sense  of  their 
superiority  to  this  most  favored  of  God's  creatures  that  very  few^  of 
them  would  be  willing  to  change  places  with  her. 

An  American  mother  some  time  ago  was  telling  a  friend  about  her 
fine  family  of  five  boys.  The  friend  suggested  that  it  would  be  better  if 
one  of  them  was  a  girl.  One  of  the  urchins  stood  near.  He  overheard 
the  remark,  and  it  was  quite  impossible  for  him  to  control  himself.  He 
blurted  out  instantly,  "I'd  like  to  know  who'd  a  bin  'er.  Jim  wouldn't 
a  bin  'er.  Sam  wouldn't  a  bin  'er.  Jo  wouldn't  a  bin  'er.  Bill 
wouldn't  a  bin  'er.  I  wouldn't  a  bin  'er.  And  I'd  like  to  know  who 
would  a  bin  'er. "  That  boy's  feelings  so  frankly  and  artlessly  ex- 
pressed are  a  reflection  of  the  conviction  of  the  vast  majority  of  his 
elders  of  the  male  sex, — a  conviction  that  womanhood  is  not  simply  dif- 
ferent from  manhood  but  that  it  is  essentially  inferior  to  manhood. 
And  wherever  that  notion  prevails  in  any  degree,  some  sort  of  oppres- 
sion follows  as  a  natural  corollary. 


Saturday,  June  24. \        RECORD  OF  I'liOVEEUlSH^.  3B7 

The  toiler,  tlieu,  is  always  oppressed  somewhere,  simply  because  he  is 
a  toiler.  Woman  is  always  oppressed  somewhere,  simply  on  account  of 
lier  womanhood.  And  Avhen  these  two  classes  are  merged  and  the  wo- 
man becomes  a  toiler,  the  load  of  oppression  rests  upon  her  with  double 
severity. 

The  cry  of  a  woman  in  distress  is  enough  to  bring  to  his  feet  at  once 
for  her  help  every  man  who  hears  it.  But  a  vast  multitude  of  women 
may  be  oppressed  by  our  methods  of  industry  to  the  point  of  physical 
starvation  or  moral  I'uin,  and  not  a  finger  or  voice  be  lifted  in  their 
behalf.  There  are  whole  libraries  of  books  on  the  needs  of  the  work- 
ingman.  But  women  in  industi*y  are  a  new  field  of  study  which  has 
only  recently  been  entered  upon.  "The  Church  and  the  Working 
Man,"  "The  Church  and  Child  Labor,"  are  subjects  that  have  been 
discussed  ten  thousand  times.  But  "The  Church  and  the  Working 
Woman"  has  a  sound  of  novelty.  It  may  be  that  the  church  has  failed 
to  give  the  wage  earning  woman  the  sympathv  she  needs  and  desei'ves 
because  it  has  felt  sure  of  her  continued  loyalty  in  spite  of  the  neglect, 
while  it  has  given  attention  to  the  woi-kingman  in  order  to  win  him  back 
from  an  alienation  that  we  have  been  forced  to  recognize. 

And  oddly  enough  workingmew  have  not  championed  the  cause  of 
their  toiling  sisters.  Indeed  sometimes  they  have  conspired  against 
them,  because  they  have  felt  that  the  women  workei's  were  crowding  out 
the  men  and  lowering  their  wages.  That  contention  Miss  Edith  Abbott 
has  shown  conclusively  cannot  be  maintained.  For  where  one  woman 
has  pressed  her  w-ay  into  an  industry  that  once  belonged  exclusively  to 
men,  three  men  have  made  their  way  into  industries  that  once  belonged 
exclusively  to  women. 

The  politicians  have  been  very  ready  to  listen  to  the  demands  of  la- 
boring men  because  the  lowliest  laboring  man  can  cast  a  ballot  on  elec- 
tion day.  But  the  toiling  woman  is  as  yet  ballotless  in  most  places,  and 
the  politicians  feel  no  pressure  of  obligation  to  serve  her.  The  latest 
instance  of  this  occurred  within  a  month  in  the  neighboring  State  of 
Delaware,  where  Governor  Pennewell  by  his  failure  to  sign,  practically 
vetoed  a  bill  providing  for  proper  sanitarj-  conditions  in  factories,  for 
the  sateguarding  of  dangerous  machinery,  for  adequate  fire  exits,  and 
for  limited  working  liours  for  women.  In  no  other  land  have  laws  for 
the  protection  of  working  women  made  such  slow  and  painful  progress 
as  in  the  United  States  of  America.  We  Americans  are  not,  I  believe, 
less  humane  than  our  German  and  English  brethren,  but  our  laws  cer- 
tainly are. 

And  our  courts  have  joined  in  the  general  unkindness  to  w^oman. 
Ours  is  the  only  land  in  wdnch  any  court  has  held  that  the  hours  of 
work  for  women  cannot  be  limited  by  statute.  Wlien  legislatures  have 
passed  beneficent  laws,  and  governors  have  signed  them,  they  have  re- 
peatedly been  declared  unconstitutional  by  our  highest  State  courts,  be- 
cause, forsooth,  they  limited  freedom  of  contract.  And  only  within  the 
last  three  years  has  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  found  a  way  to 
affirm  the  constitutionality  of  laws  for  w^oraen's  protection,  and  the 
main  reason  assigned  for  the  decision  was  tliat  tlie  future  well-being  of 
tlie  race  depends  on  the  preservation  of  woman's  health. 

"So  careful  of  the  type  they  seem 
So  careless  of  the  single  life." 


368  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

And  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  the  women  workers  themselves  deserve 
some  consideration  apart  from  the  progeny  they  may  bring  forth.  We 
are  getting  a  long  way  off  from  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testanueut  which 
certainly  emphasizes  the  value  of  the  single  life.  And  besides,  preachers 
know,  even  if  statesmen  do  not,  that  you  cannot  find  a  person  so  solitary 
that  disaster  to  him  will  not  bring  sorrowful  consequences  to  many 
others.  Lateral  consequences  deserve  as  much  consideration  as  lineal 
consequences.  After  the  Washington  Place  fire  in  New  York  City  in 
which  by  the  criminal  greed  of  a  firm  of  shirtwaist  makers  one  hundred 
and  forty-three  girls  were  roasted  to  death,  when  they  gathered  up  the 
debris  afterwards  they  found  fourteen  engagement  rings  in  the  rubbish 
on  one  floor.  And  in  the  trunk  of  one  of  the  Jewish  girls  who  was 
burned  to  a  crisp  they  found  a  letter  to  her  father  telling  him  that  he 
would  find  enclosed  the  money  to  pay  for  his  passage  to  America.  Out 
of  her  scant  earnings  she  had  at  last  saved  enough  to  bring  her  father 
from  Russia  to  this  land  of  freedom  and  hope;  she  was  to  stop  on  her 
way  home  that  afternoon  to  buy  the  money  order.  She  never  bought  it. 
The  letter  Avas  there  in  her  trunk  as  the  mute  sign  of  her  intentions, 
but  the  money  was  burned  with  her,  and  the  father  sits  desolate  in  his 
humble  home  in  faraway  Russia.  I  tell  you  there  are  immediate  effects 
of  industrial  oppression  that  are  even  more  serious  than  the  effect  on 
posterity,  and  these  too  deserve  the  consideration  of  our  courts. 

We  must  not  imagine  that  this  problem  presses  upon  us  with  new 
force  to-day  because  the  woman  worker  is  a  new  figure  in  the  industrial 
world.  Women  always  have  worked.  There  have  been  times  when  wo- 
men bore  the  whole  industrial  burden,  the  men  doingthe  fighting  only. 
Of  course,  to-day,  almost  all  Avomen  work.  Carroll  D.  Wright  some- 
where alludes  to  the  economic  value  of  the  w^ork  done  by  wives  in  the 
home, — the  unpaid  labor  of  cooking,  sewing,  cleaning,  caring  for  babies 
and  scheming  to  make  ends  meet.  If  these  women  in  our  homes  who,  as 
we  think,  do  not  work  should  resolve  to  stop  work  it  would  be  the  most 
disastrous  strike  in  all  history.  It  would  mean  the  collapse  of  all  in- 
dustry', and  the  end  of  civilization.  But  we  are  concerned  of  course  only 
with  the  womfeu  Avho  work  for  wages.  And  it  must  be  said  that  this  is 
no  new  thing.  Before  the  advent  of  the  factory  system  women  worked 
for  wages  as  intensely  and  even  more  generally  than  to-day.  In  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  in  this  country  the  courts  issued 
orders  to  the  towns  to  see  that  their  women  were  kept  employed.  And 
the  Puritan  preachers  warned  women  from  the  pulpit  of  the  dangers  of 
idle  living.  The  women  of  the  working  class  were  denounced  as  eating 
the  bread  of  idleness  if  they  Avere  not  self-supporting.  But  women 
worked  at  home  then,  and  they  Avere  able  to  adjust  their  spinning  and 
weaving  to  their  home  duties  and  their  social  life. 

In  the  factories  the  conditions  of  work  Avere  once  vastly  different  from 
present  conditions.  In  some  respects  they  Avere  better  then,  in  other 
respects  we  are  better  off  noAv.  The  character  of  the  operatives  was  once 
better,  in  this  country  at  any  rate.  Sixty  or  seventy-five  years  ago  Lucy 
Larcom  and  her  coterie  of  literaiy  friends  worked  in  the  mills  of  Lowell, 
the  city  of  spindles.  They  published  a  monthly  magazine  of  their  own 
writings.  School-teachers  worked  part  of  the  year  in  the  mills,  and 
when  a  girl  Avorked  in  a  Lowell  mill  she  Avas  required  to  sign  a  paper 
promising  to  attend  some  place  of  worship  regularly.  The  mill  girls  of 
that  district  Avere  so  disposed  to  literature  that  an  order  had  to  be  issued 


Satunliiy,  J  line  24.1         liFJ'ORl)  OF  I'liiiVEHDlSGS.  3G9 

forbiddiiiii'  tlieiu  to  read  during  work  hours.  And  they  were  so  disposed 
to  piety  that  one  overseer  wlio  confiscated  the  books  he  found  in  the  mill 
said  lie  had  a  cargo  of  Bibles.  Doubtless  that  mill  was  above  the  aver- 
age of  those  days,  but  you  could  not  find  anything  approaching  such  a 
condition  in  any  mill  to-day. 

Certain  sorts  of  work  in  which  women  once  engaged,  they  are 
now  forbidden.  Once  they  labored  like  slaves  in  the  mines  of  England, 
but  not  now.  Once  there  was  nowhere  any  limit  to  the  number  ot 
hours  they  might  try  to  work.  Now  except  in  certain  industries,  the  ten- 
hour  day  prevails  over  most  of  Christendom,  though  a  few  ot  the  Ameri- 
can States  still  lag  behind  in  the  ways  of  industrial  barbarism.  No 
doubt  higher  wages  are  paid  now  than  formerly,  but  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing is  so  much  higher  to-day  as  to  make  this  of  small  account. 

I  suppose  we  might  say  that  we  never  had  so  large  a  leisure  class 
among  women  as  to-day.  We  never  had  so  large  a  class  of  women  who 
seem  to  have  nothing  in  the  world  to  do  but  to  pet  their  poodle  dogs, 
and  play  bridge  whist.  And  no  doubt  the  presence  among  us  of  this 
large  leisure  class  of  women  has  helped  to  blind  our  eyes  to  the  hard- 
ships of  their  toiling  sisters. 

And  yet  in  spite  of  the  multitude  of  women  who  have  abundant 
leisure,  there  are  more  women  at  work  for  wages  to-day  than  ever  be- 
foi'e  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  the  number  is  steadily  increasing. 
The  recent  census  shows  that  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  women  of  the 
United  States  who  are  over  ten  years  of  age  are  earning  wages.  In  the 
United  Kingdom  the  proportion  is  about  the  same.  In  Germany  the 
same  proportion  holds.  In  Hungary  it  rises  to  twenty-seven  per  cent. 
In  Belgium  and  Denmark  it  reaches  twenty-eight  per  cent.  In  Italy  it 
is  thirty-two  per  cent,  in  France  thirty-three  per  cent,  and  in  Austria 
forty-four  per  cent.  In  the  six  larger  of  these  countries  we  have  an  av- 
erage of  nearly  seven  millions  of  women  wage  earners  each,  making  an 
aggregate  army  of  forty  millions  of  women  working  for  wages  in  six 
countries.  These  amazing  numbers  are  themselves  tremendously  im- 
pressive. 

These  women  are  found  everywhere,  in  our  kitchens  as  serving  maids, 
in  our  offices  as  stenographers  and  typewriters,  in  the  cotton  and 
woolen  mills  of  almost  every  country  on  earth,  in  the  paper  mills  and 
shoe  factories  of  New  England,  in  the  cotton  fields  of  the  South,  in  the 
hop  fields  of  Oregon,  in  the  canneries  of  California,  in  the  glass  works 
of  Pittsb  irg,  in  the  garment  factorie^  of  New  York,  in  the  cit,ar  factories 
of  Philadeli)hia..  behind  the  bar  dealing  out  drinks  and  by  the  forge  mak- 
ing chains  in  old  England,  in  the  fields  as  agricultural  laborers  in  Russia, 
on  the  roads  in  Germany,  and  in  Munich, — wdiy  Munich  was  the  first 
University  in  Europe  to  admit  women  to  its  courses, — but  there  in 
Munich  you  can  see  women  cleaning  the  sti'eets, — poor  creatures, — you 
will  look  at  them  several  tim^s  before  you  feel  sure  they  are  women. 
Indeed  there  is  scarcely  an  industry  in  which  women  do  not  have  some 
share  to-day.  In  great  multitudes  they  tramp  to  their  work  in  the  morn- 
ing, labor  at  break-neck  speed  in  overcrowded  shops  during  the  day, 
tramp  back  to  their  poor  homes  in  the  evening,  and  then  out  on  the 
streets  or  to  moving  picture  shows  or  in  still  greater  numbers  to  the 
dance  halls  for  their  recreation.  Most  of  them  are  young.  A  large  ma- 
jority of  them  are  from  fourteen  to  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  fully 
24 


370  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

one-half  are  under  twenty-one.  A  great  army  of  youthfulness  and 
beauty  endowed  with  all  the  graces  that  God  has  made  native  to  woman- 
hood and  by  which  He  wishes  the  life  of  the  world  to  be  sweetened,  and 
yet  almost  the  only  thought  many  men  have  of  them  is  how  their  young 
lives  may  be  turned  into  dollars. 

But  the  exhausting  character  of  the  toil  is  not  the  greatest  hardship 
suffered  by  working  women.  That  is  the  burden  that  rests  upon  them 
because  they  are  toilers.  I  have  already  said  that  there  is  an  additional 
burden  that  comes  from  their  womanhood.  Working  at  top  speed  they 
can  make  little  more  than  a  living.  And  those  who  cannot  maintain 
that  speed,  and  many  of  those  who  are  paid  stated  salaries,  receive  some- 
thing less  than  a  living.  It  is  said  that  it  is  an  iron  law  that  wages  seek 
the  lowest  level  of  subsistence.  But  among  women  workers  wages  have 
not  reached  the  level  of  subsistence.  Miss  Elizabeth  Butler  who  con- 
ducted the  Pittsburg  survey,  says  that  sixty  per  cent  of  the  working 
women  of  Pittsburg  are  receiving  wag'es  that  are  below  a  proper  subsis- 
tence level.  Miss  Mary  MacArthur,  Secretary  of  the  British  Woman's 
Trade  Union  League,  says  that  the  average  wage  of  women  workers  in 
England  is  7s.  6d.  weekly.  That  low  average  is  doubtless  reached  by 
taking  into  account  the  periods  of  idleness  as  well  as  the  busy  periods. 
But  then  the  workers  are  obliged  to  live  all  the  year  even  if  there  is  not 
work  for  them  all  the  year.  The  average  wage  for  women  in  America 
is  two  hundred  and  seventy  dollars  per  year.  That  itself  in  many  places 
would  be  much  below  a  living  wage,  but  that  is  the  average,  and  is  a 
sure  indication  that  for  a  very  great  number  the  income  is  lower  still. 
Now  to  be  sure  the  majority  of  these  workers  live  with  their  parents; 
their  wage  swells  the  family  income;  the  roof  over  their  heads  they  do 
not  pay  for,  nor  the  full  value  of  their  food.  But  think  of  the  plight  of 
the  girl  who  is  alone  in  the  city  working  for  an  insufficient  wage.  One 
such  girl  applying  for  a  place  in  a  Philadelphia  store  said  to  the  mana- 
ger when  he  mentioned  the  wages  she  would  receive,  "But  I  cannot  live 
on  such  wages."  He  said,  "We  do  not  expect  you  to.  None  of  these 
girls  do.  You  can  easily  get  a  friend  to  make  up  the  rest  for  you." 
One  would  think  the  suggestion  would  have  scorched  his  lips  as  he 
made  it.  The  law  of  libel  forbids  my  telling  you  the  names  of  the 
shops  where  this  is  done.  But  it  is  done  in  Philadelphia,  in  New  York, 
in  Boston,  in  Pittsburg,  in  Chicago,  in  London,  in  Berlin,  in  every  great 
city  in  Christendom.  It  is  so  frequent  a  thing  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
common  knowledge  among  girls  who  work.  And  there  are  cases  without 
number  where  comely  girls  are  promoted  in  position,  or  advanced  in 
wages,  in  acknowledgment  of  favors  received  by  superintendents  or 
managers.  It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  this,  but  it  must  be  spoken  of.  It 
is  the  most  serious  feature  of  our  industrial  life  to-day.  _  It  makes  the 
problem  of  the  working  girl  the  most  appalling  with  which  we  have  to 
do.  That  our  poor  women  should  be  obliged  to  toil  for  their  bread  is 
bad  enough,  but  that  their  necessities  should  expose  them  to  the  bland- 
ishments of  such  monsters  as  these  who  would  ruin  their  lives,  pollute 
their  minds,  and  make  sure  the  loss  of  their  souls,  is  deplorable  indeed. 
It  is  appalling  not  only  because  of  the  lowered  moral  tone  of  the  victims 
themselves  but  it  is  tainting  our  life  at  its  source.  For  remember,  re- 
member, a  race  cannot  rise  above  the  quality  of  its  womanhood. 

Knowing  what  some  of  us  do  concerning  these  matters,  it  is  difficult 
to  speak  with  moderation.     I  stood   a  few  weeks   ago  looking  at  that 


Saturday,  June  24.]        lilJCORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  371 

splendid  statue  of  Phillips  Brooks  in  front  of  Trinity  church,  Boston. 
A  friend  who  stood  by  my  side  said,  ''I  do  not  like  it.  I  do  not  under- 
stand it.  There  stands  the  great  preacher.  Just  back  of  him  stands 
Jesus  Christ  putting  a  restraining  hand  on  his  shoulder."  My  friend 
said,  "I  do  not  understand  it."  Well,  let  him  contemplate  this  thing  I 
have  tried  to  sketch  to-night;  let  him  contemplate  the  multitudes  of 
women  and  gii'ls  working  to  the  last  minute  the  law  allows;  working  as 
fast  as  though  they  were  machines;  working  in  bad  conditions;  living  in 
poor  homes;  paid  many  of  them  less  tlian  a  living  wage  so  that  the  way 
to  dishonor  is  made  not  only  easy  but  almost  a  necessity  if  they  are  to 
live;  let  him  contemplate  the  many  men  who  deliberately  lure  to  their 
ruin  by  a  slightly  increased  wage  the  finest  girls  in  their  employ,  and 
then  he  will  understand  that  statue.  He  will  feel  an  indignation  that  is 
well  nigh  uncontrollable.  He  will  feel  all  his  impulses  driving  him  to 
take  vengeance,  a  just  vengeance,  into  his  own  hands.  He  will  under- 
stand that  statue  then,  and  he  will  feel  the  need  of  having  Christ  put  a 
restraining  hand  on  his  shoulder,  and  of  hearing  Him  say  anew,  ''Ven- 
geance is  mine.     I  will  repay." 

These  are  the  conditions  that  confront  us.  What  shall  the  churches 
do  about  it?  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  denounce  the  churches  for 
having  done  nothing.  The  church  has  done  something.  The  church  is 
the  best  friend  of  the  down-trodden  there  is  in  the  world.  If  jou.  look 
through  the  great  Directory  of  Charities. of  New  York  City,  you  will  see 
that  practically  all  of  them  are  administered  by  people  who  are  in  the 
churches.  But  such  work  is  altogether  inadequate.  It  is  not  the  saving 
of  wrecks  we  want  so  much  as  the  prevention  of  wrecks. 

Sometimes  I  think  that  the  churches  would  do  more,  except  that  they 
are  bewildered  as  to  what  to  do.  I  do  not  know  that  any  one  has  a  sure 
and  immediate  cure  for  all  our  industrial  ills.  But  there  are  some 
things  that  all  churches  can  do,  simple  things,  but  they  will  prove  effi- 
cient. 

The  church  ought  to  speak  with  a  note  of  authority  to  the  employer. 
It  ought  to  be  a  conscience  to  the  community  and  make  oppression 
odious.  It  ought  to  impart  information  concerning  such  evils.  It  ought 
to  warn  unscrupulous  employers  that  the  curse  of  God  is  on  them.  Fair- 
minded  employers  will  not  resent  that.  If  others  do,  that  ought  to  make 
little  difference  to  the  faithful  servant  of  God.  Be  sure  of  your  facts 
and  then  speak  kindly  but  fearlessly.  It  might  be  well  to  have  a  monthly 
lecture  with  such  subjects  for  a  theme.  And  if  any  employer  pleads  that 
he  is  the  victim  of  a  system  and  that  though  he  would  do  better  he  can- 
not on  account  of  his  rivals,  he  ought  to  be  told  that  by  his  own  con- 
fession his  duty  is  clear. 

Abraham  Lincoln  said  to  some  young  men  who  were  to  enter  upon 
the  profession  of  law,  "Resolve  to  be  honest  at  all  events  and  if  in 
your  own  judgment  you  cannot  be  an  honest  lawyer,  resolve  to  be  hon- 
est without  being  a  lawyer."  The  Christian  pulpit  surely  can  say  no 
less  than  that  to  those  who  sit  in  the  pews,  and  it  ought  to  have  no  "hesi- 
tation in  saying  as  much  as  that  clearly.  For  this  work  our  Baptist 
churches  are  particularly  well  adapted,  for  our  services  of  worship  are 
largely  made  up  of  instruction,  and  our  preachers  are  really  propliets. 

The  church  should  maintain  an  attitude  of  sympathy  toward  the  op- 
pressed. I  (\o  not  mean  an  attitude  of  pity.  An  aristocrat  may  feel  pity 
for  a  slave,  and  the  slave's  condition  be  in  no  degree  ameliorated.    I  do 


372  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

not  mean  charity  in  the  sense  in  which  that  word  is  used  to-day.  If 
there  is  any  conclusion  that  is  definitely  reached  by  philanthropic  work- 
ers to-day  it  is  that  charity  does  not  permanently  better  many  of  tliose 
who  are  helped.  And  it  is  not  charity  that  these  workers  wish.  Indeed, 
they  resent  any  mention  of  it.  I  certainly  do  not  mean  the  empty  words 
that  i^ass  with  so  many  for  sympathy. 

I  have  heard  of  the  president  of  a  gTeat  corporation  who  gathered  to- 
gether at  a  banquet  the  heads  of  his  various  departments  to  celebrate 
the  prosperity  of  the  year  just  closed.  At  the  end  of  the  feast  when 
they  were  drinking  champagne  at  four  dollars  a  bottle  and  smoking 
cigars  at  fifty  cents  apiece,  he  reminded  his  guests  that  many  people 
were  not  prosperous,  and  that  he  sympathized  with  them,  and  as  a  sign 
of  that  sympathy  he  wished  all  who  were  present  to  join  him  in  giving 
three  cheers  for  the  poor.  The  sympathy  extended  to  the  down-trodden 
by  some  churches  is  as  empty  as  that.  But  that  is  not  sympathy.  .Sym- 
pathy has  nothing  of  condescension  in  it.  It  is  a  fellow  feeling.  The 
church  no  doubt  represents  the  Lord  of  all,  but  she  must  have  no  lordly 
spirit.  If  she  has,  it  is  all  over  with  her.  This  is  the  age  of  democracy, 
and  the  church  must  stand  with  the  people  if  they  are  to  be  Avon.  And 
here  again  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  Baptist  churches  especially  fits 
them  for  this  work.  With  the  spirit  of  a  lord  the  church  can  well 
command  the  lordly.  But  with  the  spirit  of  a  common  man  she  must 
sympathize  with  men  who  are  oppressed.  Jesus  Christ  never  played  the 
aristocrat.  He  was  the  Son  of  the  Most  High.  There  was  a  mysterious 
air  about  Him  which  everybody  felt.  But  still  He  was  unmistakably  a 
common  man,  so  much  a  man  that  there  have  been  some  in  every  age 
who  have  declared  that  He  was  no  more  than  man, — a  very  great  man, 
the  man  of  all  men,  worthy  to  be  called  the  representative  man,  the  Son 
of  Man,  and  yet  only  a  man.  So  completely  did  Christ  identify  Himself 
with  men.  He  was  so  thoroughly  one  with  them  that  when  any  one  was 
oppressed,  he  acted  as  though  He  Himself  was  outraged. 

But  we  must  do  more  than  this.  The  church  must  be  more  than  a 
mere  protest  against  wrong.  It  must  seek  to  right  the  wrong.  It  must 
do  more  than  make  a  declaration  of  war;  it  must  fight  batttles.  Mere 
talk  never  will  bring  in  the  kingdom.  We  must  organize  to  bring  about 
the  things  we  pray  for.  We  are  in  business  for  Jesus  Christ.  We  must 
act  as  though  we  meant  business. 

Shall  we  do  these  things'?  Is  the  church  too  busy  with  other  ideals  to 
concern  itself  with  such  needs  as  these?  Is  it  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to 
get  up  to  Jerusalem  for  the  temple  service  for  it  to  stop  and  minister 
to  the  poor  creatures  who  have  fallen  among  thieves  and  are  left  wound- 
ed and  despoiled  by  life's  wayside?  If  so  it  is  all  over  with  the  church, 
for  the  Master  has  never  reversed  His  condemnation  of  the  neglectful 
priest  and  Levite,  which  He  so  solemnly  pronounced  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago. 

The  Chairman  :  The  next  speaker  is  one  of  our  chief  authorities,  one 
of  the  foremost  in  the  world  on  the  subject  of  Sociology. 

Professor  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  of  New  York,  delivered  the  fol- 
lowing address : 


Saturday,  June  24. J        Rt:VORI>  OF  J'],'(}<'EKI)J.\ai^.  373 


THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  CRISES. 

By  WALTER  RAUSCHENBUSCH,  D.  D., 
Of  Rochester  Theological  Seminary. 

There  have  been  many  social  crises  in  the  history  of  the  nations,  due 
to  various  causes.  Some  were  due  to  hostile  invasions,  as  when  those 
German  pirates,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  drove  the  Christian  Britains  into 
Wales,  or  when  the  white  men  created  a  social  crisis  tor  the  Indians  by 
killing  their  butt'ah)es  and  plowing  up  their  land.  Tlie  Black  Death 
created  a  crisis  in  the  labor  market  in  the  Middle  Ages.  If  an  earth- 
quake should  burst  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  let  the  pent-up  waters  of 
the  Caribbean  Sea  into  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  Gulf  Stream  would  cease 
to  Mow  over  to  England.  Great  Britain  would  get  a  climate  like  Labra- 
dor, and  a  vast  social  crisis  would  plunge  British  civilization  into  ex- 
tinction. It  exists  only  because  this  continent  runs  'a  hot-water  heating- 
system  and  pij^es  it  across  the  Atlantic  free  of  charge  to  make  England 
habitable,  and  when  our  British  friends  hospitably  allow  us  to  travel  in 
their  lovelj'  country,  they  are  discharging  a  just  debt. 

But  we  are  less  in  danger  from  such  crises  than  any  previous  age. 
Our  social  crises  are  due  to  internal  maladjustment. 

When  ])olitical  power  and  the  sources  of  economic  wealth  are  held  by 
a  limited  class,  so  that  many  toil,  and  a  few  govern  and  enjoy,  we  have 
the  conditions  lor  a  social  crisis.  It  comes  into  action  when  some  large 
and  aspiring  social  class  gains  enough  intelligence,  cohesion,  freedom  of 
action,  and  moral  assurance,  to  tug  and  strain  at  the  antiquated  and 
unjust  social  order,  and  demand  relief  and  change. 

So  the  business  classes  in  the  cities  of  France  confronted  the  feudal 
nobility  and  clergy  with  a  demand  for  legal  and  political  rights  to  cor- 
respond to  their  actual  impoi'tance  in  the  nation,  and  the  world  saw  the 
great  social  crisis  called  the  French  Revolution.  So  in  England  to-day 
the  mass  of  people  demands  a  juster  taxation  of  unearned  wealth,  and 
coni'ronts  that  magnificent  anachronism,  the  House  of  Lords,  which 
swears  by  the  shades  of  Pharaoh  and  the  sacred  Red  Sea  that  it  will 
never  let  Israel  go. 

And  so  in  all  countries  of  the  Western  world,  the  great  industrial 
workhig  class,  swiftly  growing  in  numbers,  strong  in  education  and  in- 
telligence, with  the  breath  of  democracy  and  self-respect  in  its  nostrils, 
knit  together  by  organization,  is  confronting  its  older  brother,  the  busi- 
ness class,  with  a  demand  for  a  fairer  share  in  the  ju'oceeds  of  the  com- 
mon toil,  in  the  management  of  the  common  affairs,  and  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  light  and  vastness  of  modern  knowledge  and  culture. 

Our  age  has  outgrown  its  old  order.  It  is  aching  in  its  old  organiza- 
tion and  straining  for  a  new.  I  once  saw  a  seventeen-year  old  locust 
come  out  of  the  dusty  ground,  climb  up  a  tree,  seize  a  twig,  and  pass 
through  its  metamorphosis  from  a  chrysalis  to  a  mature  locust  in  an  hour. 
It  burst  its  old  shell  down  the  back,  crept  out  of  its  outgrown  ease,  a 
moist  and  vulnerable  thing,  and  spread  its  untried  wings  to  the  air  to 
dry. 

We  are  passing  throngh  a  similar  process.  Several  centuries  aso 
society  began  to  pass  from  the  patriarchal,  feudal,  despotic  age  into  the 
new  age  of  political  democracy  and  economic  capitalism.  It  was  a  crisis 
accomplished  with  untold  suffering  and  injustice,  but  with  the  tread  of 


374  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

destiny  and  -with  immense  achievements  of  good.  To-day  we  are  once 
more  passing  from  capitalism  to  collectivism,  from  an  economic  order 
based  on  special  privilege  and  industrial  autocracy,  to  one  based  on 
equality  of  opportunity  and  industrial  democracy.  It  will  come  with 
travail  and  bloody  sweat,  but  once  more  it  is  the  tread  of  destiny  and  it 
brings  rich  promise. 

This  is  the  present  social  crisis.    How  is  the  church  concerned  in  it  °? 

The  church  is  always  a  chief  sufferer  in  every  social  crisis.  It  is  a 
great  social  institution  deeply  rooted  in  the  soil  of  the  nation  for  cen- 
turies. When  that  soil  is  convulsed  or  washed  away,  the  roots  of  the 
church  are  torn  loose  or  washed  bare.  When  a  nation  is  industrialized, 
like  ours  to-day,  the  country  people  are  sucked  into  the  manufacturing 
centres,  and  the  country  churches,  which  are  the  chief  strength  of  the 
church,  are  left  high  and  dry.  On  the  other  hand  the  down-town 
churches  are  submerged  with  a  rubble  of  human  beings  with  which  they 
find  it  hard  to  establish  contact.  In  our  old-fashioned  villages  there 
used  to  be  a  large  body  of  substantial  families  owning  farms  and  stores. 
To-day  there  are  a  few  wealthy  employers  and  a  large  class  of  factory 
hands;  and  where  are  the  village  churches  to  gain  their  financial  and 
moral  support?    Thus  the  churches  suffer  in  the  social  crisis. 

Moreover,  when  there  is  widespread  social  suffering  and  men  realize 
keenly  the  wrongs  under  which  they  labor,  they  instinctively  turn  to  the 
church  for  aid  and  redress.  They  feel  that  so  powerful  a  body,  created 
for  the  very  end  of  establishing  justice,  peace,  and  love,  must  be  able  to 
heal  the  evils  of  society.  When  they  find  the  church  impotent  and  per- 
plexed, they  accuse  it.  The  times  of  social  upheaval  are  always  the 
times  when  the  church  suffers  severest  blame. 

The  criticism  of  the  church  grows  sharper  when  the  church  not  only 
stands  impotent  to  help,  unable  to  adjust  itself  promptly  to  the  changing 
needs  of  the  people,  but  when  great  classes  feel  that  the  church  is  antag- 
onistic to  their  interest. 

The  spirit  of  Christianity  is  a  tireless  force  of  progress,  but  the 
church  is  a  very  conservative  institution.  Every  church  is  in  close 
spiritual  contact  with  the  ideas  of  the  age  in  which  it  grew  strong  in 
the  nation,  with  the  philosophy  of  life,  the  fundamental  moral  and  legal 
views  of  that  age.  These  are  the  climate  to  which  it  is  adapted.  These 
ideas  seem  to  that  church  identical  with  morality  and  the  divine  order  of 
society,  and  it  protects  and  defends  them.  That  is  very  welcome  to  the 
social  classes  who  are  in  possession,  and  they  lean  on  the  conservative 
forces  of  the  church.  On  the  other  hand  the  rising  and  aspiring 
classes,  who  embody  new  and  raw  principles  of  morality,  feel  the  au- 
thority of  the  church  exerted  against  them  and  the  cause  which  they  feel 
to  be  holy,  and  they  bitterly  resent  what  seems  to  them  a  spiritual  per- 
version of  the  church. 

So  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  had  developed  in  the  patriarchal, 
feudal,  despotic  age,  and  it  fought  the  rise  of  democracy,  individualism, 
and  industrialism  with  all  its  power.  It  is  still  an  "unreconstructed 
rebel  in  the  present  age  of  democracy. 

On  tHe  other  hand.  Protestantism  grew  up  when  the  new  industrial 
and  commercial  class  was  gaining  freedom  and  powei\  It  gained  its  chief 
supporters  in  that  class,  and  became  the  spiritual  expression  of  all  that 
was  high  and  noble  in  that  class,  its  cry  for  liberty,  its  energetic  indi- 
vidualism.    But  the  danger  is  now  that  it  will  in  turn  set  itself  against 


balurday,  June  :24.J        REVOIW  OF  TROCEEDINGS.  375 

the  cullectivisl  conception  of  the  new  working  class,  and  will  use  the 
spiritual  ideals  of  an  era  that  is  passing  in  order  to  beat  down  the  still 
nobler  ideals  of  an  age  that  is  coming.  As  yet  Protestantism  has  not 
understood  the  ethical  convictions  that  are  fermenting  in  the  hearts  of 
the  working  class  and  inspiring  it  with  such  heroic  self-sacrifice  and 
ardor. 

bo  the  church  is  deeply  involved  in  the  Social  Crisis.  It  has  a  solemn 
duty  for  which  it  is  answerable  to  God  and  the  nations.  Each  nation 
has  need  of  all  its  moral  forces  to  pass  through  the  social  transition 
safely.  It  is  threatened  by  disruption  and  chaos  on  the  one  side,  and  by 
coercion  and  strangulation  of  justice  on  the  other.  The  development  of 
a  new  social  order  is  inevitable,  but  it  may  come  in  good  or  evil  ways, 
by  peace  or  blood,  swiftly  and  simply,  or  by  long-drawn  struggles  and 
zigzag  ways.  Men  of  moral  vigor  and  Christian  wisdom  may  be  leaders, 
or  men  of  untempered  passions  and  with  hate  in  their  souls.  If  the 
church  by  timidity  and  conservatism  holds  its  own  sons  back  from  the 
social  movement,  it  delivers  a  great  cause  over  to  leaders  of  inferior 
qualities.  If  the  church  opposes  a  cause  that  is  manifestly  just,  it  cre- 
ates bitterness  and  anarchy,  and  hatred  for  religion. 

There  is  no  use  denying  that  the  church  in  the  past  has  with  pitiful 
regularity  opposed  the  cause  of  the  people.  We  know  that  in  Russia  the 
Holy  Orthodox  Church  is  the  prop  of  the  Autocracy  and  nobility,  and 
helps  to  beat  down  the  rising  of  the  people.  In  Italy  the  Roman  Church 
opposed  the  passionate  longing  of  the  Italian  people  for  freedom  and 
unity,  and  to-day  after  forty  years  still  stands  sullenly  aside  while  Italy 
celebrates  the  jubilee  of  its  unity.  In  France  the  church  has  so  persis- 
tently opposed  the  popular  aspirations  for  freedom  and  brotherhood, 
that  great  portions  of  the  people  have  come  to  hate  the  very  idea  of  God 
and  religion.  The  Protestant  State  churches  of  Germany  opposed  the 
movement  towards  democracy,  and  even  when  they  favored  rel'orms, 
they  were  at  heart  the  defenders  of  the  upper  classes.  The  Church  of 
England  in  the  main  has  been  a  Tory  influence,  and  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  moral  backing  of  the  Non-conformist  churches,  England  would 
have  been  held  back  in  her  march  toward  democracy. 

Throughout  Western  Chiistendom  there  has  been  a  long  struggle  of  the 
peojile  toward  political  liberty  and  social  brotherhood.  It  was  often 
blind,  sinful,  brutal,  as  every  great  movement  of  humanity  has  always 
been.  Yet  God  w^as  in  it.  But  the  churches  that  exist  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  establishing  the  reign  of  justice,  peace,  and  brotherhood,  have 
with  fatal  persistence  ranged  themselves  on  the  other  side.  This  has 
been  the  greatest  scandal  in  Christendom.  This  is  the  great  moral 
stumbling-block  beside  which  all  intellectual  difficulties  of  belief  in 
Christian  doctrine  are  insignificant.  It  has  produced  more  alienation 
from  religion  than  all  other  causes  combined.  When  we  in  America  are 
faced  by  millions  of  immigrants  who  are  indifferent  or  bitter  against 
the  church,  the  sins  of  the  European  churches  are  being  visited  on  us. 
These  churches  failed  the  people  in  the  hour  of  their  need.  The  salt  was 
without  saltness  and  the  people  are  trampljng  it  under  foot. 

We  Baptists  are  called  of  God  to  reverse  this  attitude  of  the  older 
churches.  We  are  the  historical  heirs  of  the  medieval  sects,  which  held 
convictions  of  democracy  and  fraternity,  and  were  persecuted  for  their 
social  principles  as  well  as  their  religion.  We  are  the  heirs  of  the  glori- 
ous Anabaptist  movement  of  the  Reformation,  which  embodied  the  re- 


376  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

ligious  and  social  hopes  of  the  common  people,  and  was  trodden  down 
in  blood  for  that  combination.  We  are  directly  descended  from  the 
most  radical  party  of  the  English  Revolution.  We  have  embodied  the 
principles  of  democracy  in  the  congregational  organization  of  our 
churches.  We  have  exalted  individual  liberty  in  making  religion  the 
free  act  of  the  soul,  and  repudiating  all  coercion  in  religion.  We  have 
always  multiplied  most  among  the  common  people,  because  we  have  a 
natural  affinity  for  their  convictions  and  spirit. 

Thus  we  are  the  predestined  friends  of  the  young  democracy  in  all  na- 
tions. Our  Baptist  churches  should  incarnate  a  type  of  religion  that  is 
not  the  foe  of  liberty,  but  the  inspiring  soul  of  it,  and  thus  fill  the  work- 
ing people  with  religious  faith  in  their  cause,  and  religious  patience  and 
courage  in  their  battles. 

We  in  this  country  have  watched  with  pride  and  joy  the  part  which 
our  brothers  in  Great  Britain  have  taken  in  the  great  political  and  social 
movements  there,  and  have  cheered  them  on.  On  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope we  know  they  are  under  greater  restraints  and  less  powerful  in 
numbers,  but  sometimes  I  fear  that  they  are  affected  by  the  attitude  of 
State  churches  and  lack  the  fire  of  democratic  enthusiasm.  They  have 
often  spent  their  efforts  in  keeping  their  members  immune  from  the  con- 
victions and  hopes  of  their  working  class  brethren. 

Tn  this  country  our  denomination  has  furnislied  some  of  the  earliest 
and  bravest  pioneers  in  the  present  social  awakening  of  the  churches. 
We  have  individuals  who  incarnate  the  Baptist  spirit,  and  whose  teaching- 
influence  is  felt  throughout  the  country.  As  a  denomination  Ave  have 
repeatedly  taken  action  to  express  our  "sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the 
workers.  But  I  tell  you  frankly  that  we  have  not  equaled  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  the  boldness  of  our  utterance.  We  have  nothing  even  re- 
motely equaling  the  Presbyterian  Department  of  Church  ancl  Labor  in 
influence  and  efficiency.  We  allowed  our  old-time  rivals,  the  Methodists, 
to  snatch  the  leadership  by  their  remarkable  action  in  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1908. 

I  covet  for  our  great  denomination  a  place  second  to  none  in  this  holy 
cause  of  God  and  the  people.  There  is  more  religion,  more  of  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  and  the  prophets,  in  the  little  finger  of  that  cause  than  in  the 
thish-bone  of  most  of  the  theological  controversies  of  the  past.  To  side 
Avith  that  cause  in  the  spirit  of  religious  faith  opens  vast  opportunities 
of  moral  and  spiritual  service  to  our  peoples,  and  also  offers  the  chance 
for  a  great  spiritual  enlargement  and  quickening  for  our  own  religious 
life. 

Delegate:  My  name  is  Eaton,  from  New  York  State;  may  I  say  a  sen- 
tence or  two?  My  brothers  and  sisters,  I  am  an  American  citizen  and 
have  been  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  Ncav  York  for  almost  twenty-five 
years.  I  raise  my  hand  to  heaven  and  swear  by  Him  who  sitteth  on  the 
throne  that  the  industrial  and  commercial  system  of  our  time  has  not 
breathed  a  single  breath  of  freedom.  Will  you  help  me  obtain  my  free- 
dom ? 

Session  adjourned  after  singing  the  Doxology  and  the  pronouncing  of 
the  benediction  bv  Di'.  Clifford. 


Suiulay,  June  25.]  REVO N I)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  377 


THIRTEENTH   SESSION 


Sunday  Morning,  June  25,  1911. 

Session  opened  at  11  A.  M.,  the  devotional  services  being  conducted 
by  Dr.  John  Haslam,  of  England,  and  Rev.  S.  J.  Porter,  of  Texas. 

Doxology  and  invocation. 

Hymn,  *'0h.  Worship  the  King." 

Scripture  reading,  Acts  2:  22-47. 

Prayer. 

Hymn,  "Love  Divine  all  Love  Excelling." 

Presidknt  E.  Y.  Mullins,  of  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
delivered  a  sermon  on : 

THE  LORDSHIP  OF  JESUS. 
By  President  E.  Y.  MULLINS. 

I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  text  contained  in  the  second  chap- 
ter of  the  Book  of  Acts,  thirty-sixth  verse :  ' '  Therefore,  let  all  the  house 
of  Israel  know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made  this  same  Jesus  whom  we 
have  crucified  both  Lord  and  Christ."  The  experiences  of  the  disciples 
after  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  wrought  in  them  a  remarkable  transfor- 
mation. Of  course  this  is  a  familiar  tiiith,  and  yet  it  is  one  to  which  I 
wish  at  the  outset  to  call  attention.  Evidently  a  new  energy  is  now  at 
work  in  human  history,  an  energy  capable  of  grasping  the  individual  life 
and  utterly  transforming,  or  as  Paul  expresses  it,  transfiguring  that  life, 
an  energy  capable  of  integrating  the  individual  into  society,  capable  of 
pervading  with  this  conquering  power  all  parts  of  this  social  organism, 
an  energy  which  is  destined  to  grapple  with  all  forms  of  earthly  sover- 
eignties, and  slowly  conquer  its  way  into  and  over  them. 

There  are  two  movements  parallel  to  each  other  Avhich  we  observe  in 
this  New  Testament  history  as  the  embodiment  of  this  new  energy.  One 
is  the  increasing  and  more  clearly  defined  recognition  of  the  Lordship  of 
Jesus  by  his  disciples,  evidenced  to  us  by  the  new  names  which  they  now 
give  to  him  as  well  as  by  the  new  life  which  he  hath  ci-eated  in  them,  the 
names  constituting  the  mark,  the  index,  so  to  speak,  of  their  effort  to 
construe  the  meaning  of  the  life  which  is  now  at  Avork  in  them,  and  to 
set  forth  their  conception  of  their  relation  to  Him  who  has  thus  become 
Lord  in  a  new  sense.  And  the  other  movement  parallel  to  this  is  the 
conquering  might  of  Jesus  as  that  is  manifested  in  the  church,  in  the 
lives  of  individual  believers  as  they  come  in  contact  with  their  environ- 
ment in  that  early  age.  This  is  the  characteristic  fact  of  early  Christi- 
anity, the  Lordship  of  Jesus  and  the  conquering  might  of  the  church. 

Notice  some  of  the  ways  in  which  they  indicated  this  Lordship  of 
Jesus  in  their  own  tliinkiug.  in  their  own  experience.     They  had  called 


378  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Jesus  by  the  name  of  Master,  by  the  name  of  Messiah,  and  in  a  sense 
Lord  during  the  early  ministry,  but  now  they  pass  from  the  conventional 
conception  of  the  Messiah  into  something  higher  and  finer,  and  every 
event  that  takes  place  seems  to  furnish  occasion  for  them  to  designate 
Jesus  in  a  new  way,  and  in  every  turn  of  their  spiritual  experience  they 
seem  to  see  his  colossal  character  from  some  new  angle  and  point  of 
view. 

When  the  wondrous  and  miraculous  gifts  of  Pentecost  are  showered 
upon  the  church  like  a  shower  of  diamonds,  it  is  explained  as  the  gift 
of  him  who  has  been  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God.  And  when  under 
the  preaching  of  Pentecost  hundreds  and  thousands  are  led  to  confess 
him,  it  is  because  God  hath  exalted  him  to  be  the  Prince  and  Saviour 
and  to  give  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  unto  Israel  And  when  men 
look  upon  the  church,  that  wonderful  organism  of  the  Spirit  which  now 
roots  itself  in  the  world  and  begins  to  conquer  its  way,  and  asks  whence 
it  came  and  how  it  arose,  the  answer  is  that  he  ascended  on  high  and 
led  captivity  captive  and  gave  gifts  unto  men.  To  some  he  gave  apostles, 
and  to  some  prophets,  and  some  teachers,  and  some  pastors,  and  on  and 
on,  through  all  the  ramifications  and  organizations  of  the  church  and  its 
work.     They  trace  it  all  to  him. 

And  when  another  one  of  these  men  under  the  experience  of  this  res- 
urrection power,  of  this  transforming  energy,  is  trying  to  describe  who 
and  what  Jesus  is  in  relation  to  earthly  rulers,  he  says,  "He  is  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords,"  and  when  he  is  describing  his  relation  to  hu- 
man history  he  says  of  him,  "He  is  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end."  And  another  in  endeavoring  to  describe  the  rela- 
tion of  Jesus  to  creation  says  of  him.  He  is  the  medium  through  which 
the  creative  act  of  God  passed  when  he  made  all  things,  for  through 
him  were  all  things  made.  And  when  he  attempts  to  express  the  con- 
tent of  the  nature  of  Jesus  he  compares  him,  so  to  speak,  to  a  golden 
vessel  which  contains  divinity  itself,  for  he  says,  "In  him  dwelt  all  the 
fulness  of  the  God-head  bodily."  And  in  trying  to  express  the  feelings 
of  the  moral  beauty  and  the  divine  glory  of  Christ's  nature,  another 
one  says,  "He  is  the  effulgence  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  image  of 
his  substance."  And  so  they  strain  language  and  they  tax  the  imagina- 
tion to  describe  him  whom  they  now  receive  and  bow  to  as  Lord  as  they 
never  had  done  it  before.  I  say  this  is  one  of  the  movements  which  we 
see  in  this  early  New  Testament  Christianity. 

Now  there  is  one  that  moves  parallel  with  it,  namely,  the  conquering 
power  in  his  people  and  in  his  church,  that  is  the  correlative  that  answers 
to  their  recognition  of  his  Lordship  and  that  is  seen  in  many  ways  which 
I  cannot  dwell  upon.  A  recent  writer  has  said  these  early  disciples  sim- 
ply recognized  that  a  new  energy  was  working  in  them;  they  did  not 
know  the  purpose  of  that  energy.  But  I  think  they  did ;  they  knew  in  a 
measure  at  least  God's  purpose.  Certainly  they  knew  the  energy  was 
there;  here  is  an  energy  that  does  wonders,  with  them;  it  conquers  the 
Jerusalem  that  crucified  Christ,  it  lays  hold  upon  a  man  of  such  eapa- 


Sunday,  June  25.]  REVORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  379 

cious  intellect  that  he  is  adequate  to  the  deliverance  to  the  world  of  a 
universal  gospel  which  will  strike  at  the  very  root  of  Judaism.  It  is  an 
energy  capable  of  working  around  the  Mediterranean  and  conquering  its 
way  through  every  community  which  it  shall  encounter,  an  energy 
which  does  not  rest  until  it  plants  its  feet  in  the  Impei'ial  City  of  Rome, 
and  stands  there  in  the  person  of  the  conquering  apostle  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  looks  out  upon  the  world,  and  potentially  the  world  is  conquered 
when  Paul  reaches  Rome.  I  think  his  imagination  was  appealed  to  by 
the  fact  that  Rome  was  the  centre  of  the  world,  and  he  never  would  have 
been  ready  to  be  offered  up  if  somehow  his  brave  heart  could  not  have 
felt  that  there  in  the  city  of  Rome  the  gospel  was  to  take  a  new  start 
and  conquer  the  world.     So  much  for  the  parallel  movements. 

Now,  I  maintain  this  morning  that  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  and  the  con- 
quering might  of  his  people  this  combination  is  the  characteristic  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament  life,  the  New  Testament  record  of  the  life  of  the 
disciples.  I  wish  to  show  in  what  I  shall  have  to  say  further,  how  this 
Lordshij:)  became  a  fact  and  how  this  conquering  might  of  Jesus  in  and 
through  his  disciples  became  the  great  force  in  history  which  it  did  be- 
come; for  be  it  understood  that  henceforth  history  has  a  clue  to  it 
which  men  can  trace.  Hitherto  history  had  been  confusion  and  chaos 
largely,  but  from  that  day  on  it  begins  to  be  a  story  with  an  aim  and  an 
end.  If  you  liken  history  to  a  game  of  chess,  for  the  first  time  now  men 
begin  to  see  the  placing  of  the  men  and  how  the  game  is  going.  Or  if 
you  liken  history  to  the  unfolding  of  an  organism,  for  the  first  time  men 
can  discern  the  bony  frame-work  of  the  organism  as  it  unfolds  toward 
maturity.  Or  if  you  liken  history  to  the  formation  of  a  solar  systein, 
for  the  first  time  men  can  see  the  great  central  mass  which  is  flinging 
off  smaller  masses  that  are  to  be  congealed  and  cooled  into  satellites  and 
a  new  system  is  to  arise.  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Cross  henceforth  become 
the  clue  to  history;  and  when  Constantine  had  a  vision  of  the  fiery  cross 
a  new  epoch  begins  in  human  history;  and  from  that  day  to  this  any  stu- 
dent with  his  eyes  open  can  put  his  finger  on  the  stages  of  development 
which  have  taken  place  during  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
And  to-day,  as  never  before,  our  eyes  of  faith  can  discern  the  outlines  of 
the  City  of  God  coming  down  out  of  heaven  to  earth.  And  the  powers 
of  the  saints  of  God  have  to-day  the  pulsation  of  an  assurance,  and  a 
conviction,  and  a  certainty  of  the  outcome  of  the  spiritual  process  that  is 
going  on  in  the  world,  that  men  have  never  had  before. 

This  Alliance  is  one  of  the  tokens  of  it.  We  have  had  and  felt  even 
so  the  pulsations  of  that  mighty  life  and  power.  I  would  note  them  by 
way  of  expounding  this  conception  of  the  Lordship  of  Christ: 

First  of  all,  the  ground  of  his  Lordship;  what  does  it  rest  upon? 

The  simple  answer  to  it  is  that  he  is  Lord  by  divine  appointment.  "Be 
it  known  unto  the  House  of  Israel  that  God  hath  made  this  same  Jesus 
whom  ye  crucified  both  Lord  and  Christ."  Now,  God's  appointments  are 
never  arbitrary.  If  God  appointed  Jesus  Lord  it  is  because  it  was  fitting 
that  ho  should  be  T^ord.    If  God  appointed  Jesus  Lord  it  was  because  he 


380  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

possesses  the  lordly  nature.  If  God  appointed  him  to  be  Lord  and  be  ex- 
ercises tbe  functions  and  powers  of  Lord  in  human  experience,  it  is  be- 
cause in  the  ultimate  and  essential  of  his  nature  he  is  Lord.  You  cannot 
get  the  effect  without  the  cause  as  some  moderns  would  do.  We  cannot 
say,  we  do  not  know,  what  Jesus  was  in  himself  though  we  do  know  he 
works  a  divine  work  in  human  life.  He  does  give  repentance,  he  does  give 
remission,  he  does  give  regeneration,  he  is  Lord  in  the  lives  of  men,  but 
we  do  not  know  what  he  is  in  himself.  I  submit  to-day  that  if  Jesus  does 
a  lordly  work  it  is  because  he  is  Lord.  If  you  claim  the  effect  you  musU 
assign  the  cause  that  produces  it. 

Alice  in  Wonderland,  you  remember,  saw  a  cat  with  a  grin  on  its  face, 
and  the  cat  faded  slowly  away  until  there  was  nothing  left  but  the  grin, 
Dut  you  know  that  was  in  Wonderland,  that  was  not  in  real  life.  You 
may  have  seen  a  face  without  a  grin,  but  you  never  saw  a  grin  without 
a  face,  save  in  imagination.  You  cannot  have  a  Christ,  you  cannot  have 
a  Christian,  you  cannot  have  an  effect  produced  in  human  character 
unless  in  the  background  there  is  an  energy  and  a  nature  that  answers 
to  the  effect  that  is  produced  there.  A  divine  function  calls  for  a  divine 
power.  A  judgment  of  value  calls  for  a  judgment  of  reality.  If  Jesus 
is  not  God,  if  he  is  not  divine,  when,  and  where,  and  how  did  he  wrest 
from  the  hands  of  God  a  divine  function  and  take  the  reins  of  human 
history    in   his    hand? 

Now,  of  course,  we  all  understand  that  no  philosophic  formulation  of 
the  conception  of  Christ's  person  can  ever  be  final.  We  all  know  that 
the  Nicene  fathers  did  not  exhaust  all  reality  in  their  effort  to  define 
the  person  of  Christ,  and  of  course  we  as  Baptists  above  all  people  are 
not  bound  to  any  effort  philosophical  to  formulate  as  an  exhaustive 
statement  who  and  what  Christ  was  in  the  metaphysical  sense.  We  are 
content  to  take  the  Scriptures,  the  clear  and  .conclusive  and,  for  us,  fiiiSl 
deliverance  of  the  Scriptures;  and  I  say  to-day  that  the  Scriptures  show 
that  Jesus  is  exalted  as  Lord  because  the  Scriptures  recognize  in  him 
essentially  the  divine. 

Growing  out  of  this  nature  of  Christ,  growing  out  of  this  divine  func- 
tion which  he  exercises  in  human  society,  there  are  several  manifesta- 
tions of  it,  and  I  want  to  name  them,  based  upon  his  fitness  to  be  Lord : 

One  is  his  successful  affirmation  of  spiritual  values  and  realities  against 
a  materialistic  age,  his  and  our  successful  affirmation  of  spiritual  values 
over  against  an  age  that  seeks  to  quench  them  and  to  cancel  them  and  to 
undermine  them.  The  modern  man  on  one  side  of  his  experience  has 
been  greatly  cowed  and  humiliated  by  the  bigness  of  the  world. 

The  psalmist  felt  the  same  thing  when  he  wrote  those  words, — ''When 
I  consider  the  heavens,  the  Avork  of  thy  fingers,  the  moon  and  the  stars 
which  thou  hast  made,  what  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the 
son  of  man  that  thou  considerest  him?"  But  modern  science  has  car- 
ried the  universe  of  the  psalmist  out  into  depths  and  up  into  heights; 
oh,  the  psalmist  had  no  conception  of  the  modern  universe,  and  all  the 
tendencies  have  been  to  dwarf  man  and  to  magnifv  nature  and  to  meas- 


Sutiday,  .luiu'  _>.->.  |  Rl-.'COh'l)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  381 

lire  tilings  by  extonuil  glory  and  sijloiidor.  And  wo  must  admit,  and  I 
admit  to-daj',  that  it'  we  are  to  measure  the  human  value  and  the  personal 
value  by  the  external  splendor,  then  Orion  eclipses  William  Shakespeare, 
and  the  Pleiades  are  far  more  splendid  than  the  church  itself  in  that 
sense,  and  the  Milky  Way  makes  all  human  history  look  like  a  pathway 
of  ants  throuiih  a  jungle.  Yes,  if  you  judge  human  history  by  external 
splendor  then  it  is  true  indeed  that  man  is  dwarfed  and  tlie  universe  is 
mighty. 

I  think  sometimes  we  fail  to  realize  the  tendencies  in  our  day,  and 
consequently  to  appreciate  on  the  other  hand  the  causes  that  prevent 
them  from  working  themselves  out.  Think  of  it.  Man's  native  carnal 
unbelief  makes  it  hard  for  him  to  grasp  the  truth  of  immortality  and 
the  truth  of  God.  Man's  selfish  and  sinful  nature  and  especially  in  a 
scientific  age  his  limitation  to  sense  perception  as  the  criterion  of  truth 
and  value,  make  it  dilMcult  for  him  to  grasp  these  things,  and  in  an  age 
where  as  never  before  men  have  recognized  the  problem  of  suffering,  the 
problem  of  eternal  values  becomes  a  sore  and  difficult  problem.  And 
then  the  vastness  of  physical  nature,  as  I  have  said,  dwarfs  man.  Then 
even  on  the  principles  of  a  scientific  criterion  of  truth  and  knowledge, 
which  is  simply  the  law  of  causation,  the  quantitative  equivalent  of  cause 
and  effect,  one  thing  transformed  into  another  thing,  the  electric  light 
that  transforms  current,  and  the  current  that  transforms  heat,  and  the 
heat  that  transforms  carbon  of  the  coal,  and  the  coal  that  transforms 
vegetation  of  early  days,  and  the  early  vegetation  that  transformed  sun- 
light, and  the  sunlight  that  transformed  energy  of  some  material  that 
fed  the  sun,  I  know  not  what, — you  can  trace  it  back  and  back  in  an  in- 
finite retreat  and  you  never  reach  anything  but  a  physical  causation* 
And  science  has  set  that  up  as  the  final  test  of  truth. 

What  we  know  is  Avhat  we  can  explain  as  transformed  energy.  Where 
shall  personality  and  where  shall  immortality  and  where  shall  God  find 
place  in  such  a  scheme  of  things  as  that  1  There  is  no  place.  And  yet, 
my  friends,  in  this  age  where  science  has  set  up  such  a  criterion  of  truth 
and  when  the  universe  impends  like  a  mighty  mechanism  and  would  fall 
upon  and  smite  us,  somehow  man  is  not  cowed  by  that,  somehow  he  re- 
fuses to  be  blinded  by  the  glare  and  the  dazzle  of  all  the  Orions,  and  all 
the  Milky  Ways,  and  all  the  boundless  reg-ions  of  space.  He  insists, 
somehow  or  other,  in  seeing  behind  these  splendid  physical  realities 
another  reality  more  splendid  and  glorious  than  any  of  them.     Why? 

There  is  but  one  answ-er  to  it;  it  is  because  Jesus  Christ  has  demon- 
strated to  mankind  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  universe.  It  is  because  he 
has  taken  personality  and  interpreted  it  to  us.  It  is  because  he  has  set 
man  up  as  the  one  great  value  in  this  world  in  God's  sight,  and  through 
religious  exjierienee  has  made  God  real  for  man.  If  is  because  Jesus 
said, — **Are  ye  not  of  much  more  value  than  many  sheep?"  that  that 
is  true.  It  is  because  he  said,  ''What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul?"  that  that  is  true.  It  is  Because 
Jesus  said,  A  lost  soul  is  like  a  lost  coin  that  rolls  away  and  that  is 


382  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

searched  for  by  the  woman  until  she  find  it,  that  God  feels  himself  im- 
poverished until  the  lost  man  is  found,  that  God  feels  himself  enriched 
when  a  lost  soul  is  brought  back  to  him.  It  is  because  in  connection  with 
these  truths  Jesus  has  made  the  universe  of  the  spirit  a  fact  in  human 
experience  that  we  are  not  cowed  by  the  cosmos.  It  is  because  of  the 
inner  experience  of  God  that  Jesus  has  given  to  us  through  faith  in  him 
as  the  Lord  and  Redeemer,  that  men  are  not  daunted  by  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  modern  scientific  thinker.  It  is  because  you  and  I  who  have 
personal  relations  of  will  and  emotion,  as  well  as  of  intellect,  to  God  that 
we  know  there  is  a  reality  behind  the  physical,  greater  than  the  phys- 
ical; and  the  man  who  asserts  that  we  have  not,  well  he  is  just  the  John 
Jasper  of  to-day. 

John  Jasper  said  the  sun  moves  around  the  earth  because  when  I 
look  at  the  East  in  the  morning  it  is  there  and  when  I  look  at  the  West 
at  night  it  is  there;  I  know  the  sun  moves  around  the  earth.  Now,  Jas- 
per did  not  know  of  some  other  movements  that  he  did  not  take  in  in  his 
limited  area  and  range  of  experience.  Behind  what  be  saw  were  great 
movements  which  he  did  not  grasp.  The  physical  scientist  who  denies 
the  actuality  of  the  spiritual  is  the  John  Jasper  of  modem  thought  be- 
cause he  looks  at  the  phenomenal  and  not  at  the  real. 

Philosophy  has  not  been  able  to  dislodge  man  from  his  conviction,  or 
the  conviction  from  man,  that  the  soul  is  immortal  and  religion  is  real. 
Pantheism  quenches  personality  in  its  doctrine  of  substance;  idealism 
engulfs  personality  in  the  absolute;  and  materialism  makes  of  person- 
ality just  a  bubble  on  the  lake,  just  a  glistening  shining  thing  that  is  but 
a  manifestation  of  matter,  an  iridescent  emptiness  that  gleams  a  moment 
and  then  collapses  back  into  the  physical  universe  whence  it  came.  All 
philosophies  select  some  bit  of  the  seen  and  the  felt,  and  generalize  it 
into  a  system,  deducting  all  the  universe  from  the  one  thing  which  it 
considers.  It  is  just  as  if  a  man  were  to  take  a  fish  out  of  the  ocean  and 
take  one  scale  from  the  back  of  the  fish,  and  from  that  scale  as  the  foun- 
dation deduce  all  the  contents  of  the  ocean.  Monism  takes  the  idea  of 
unity,  materialism  takes  the  idea  of  matter,  idealism  takes  the  concep- 
tion of  thought,  the  scale  from  one  little  fish  from  the  great  ocean  of 
reality.  And  they  are  at  war  with  one  another,  the  philosophers  are  at 
war  with  one  another. 

What  does  Jesus  do?  Jesus  comes  to  men  and  says,  There  is  a  better 
way  of  knowing  than  picking  up  a  scale  from  a  fish  of  the  great  ocean ; 
the  better  way  is  to  plunge  into  the  great  ocean,  the  better  way  is  to  sub- 
mit to  the  clasping  power  of  its  waves,  the  better  way  is  to  go  to  God, 
to  know  him  through  the  will  and  the  heart  as  well  as  through  the  intel- 
lect. The  way  to  God  is  practically  to  know  him,  the  way  to  know  him 
is  to  know  him  by  submission  to  him.  the  way  to  know  him  is  to  know 
him  through  blessed  experience  of  his  grace,  and  power,  and  life  in  the 
heart.  Jesus  enables  us  to  triumph  over  material  considerations  because 
in  this  spiritual  experience  he  has  given  to  our  hearts  he  has  made  for 
religion  an  empirical  basis  just  as  science  has.    He  has  given  for  religion 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  383 

a  basis  for  fact  and  of  the  actual  which  stands  over  against  the  fact  and 
the  actual  of  the  physical  in  sovereign  independence,  in  sovereign  triumph. 

I  say  Jesus  guides  human  thought  and  is  Lord  because  he  does  it.  He 
is  Lord  of  the  moral  progress  of  the  race.  The  modern  superficial  thinker 
says  the  ethics  of  Jesus  are  outgrown.  I  read  the  other  day  that  a  man 
said  the  ethics  of  Jesus  has  uotliing  to  say  to  the  man  in  New  York  City; 
there  are  relationships  and  problems  which  the  ethics  of  Jesus  never 
touch.  That  is  very  superficial.  My  friends,  there  is  only  one  way  to 
transcend  the  ethics  of  Jesus,  and  that  is  to  repudiate  all  ethics,  and 
Nietszche  is  logical  and  sees  that  and  proceeds  to  do  it.  He  says  ethics  is 
the  greatest  calamity  the  world  has  ever  had  inflicted  upon  it.  Super- 
man is  the  ideal  and  so  Nietszche  proceeds  to  carry  out  the  evolutionary 
hypothesis  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  in  such  a  way  that  patience  and 
altruism  and  the  helping  of  the  neighbor  in  distress  and  missions  are 
utterly  absurd  and  keep  the  race  back.  And  that  is  the  only  way  the 
ethics  of  Jesus  can  ever  be  transcended^ — by  repudiating  them.  Because 
as  soon  as  man  begins  to  follow  out  the  traces  of  any  ethical  theory  and 
get  on  the  track  of  ti-uth,  by  and  by  they  show  the  shadowy  form  of  Jesus 
just  ahead,  and  the  nearer  they  come  to  him  the  more  clearly  they  recog- 
nize him.  Professor  Ely  in  his  Political  Economy  says  modern  political 
economy  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  the  application  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  word  of  the  Parable  of  the  Talents.  And  so  we  might  go  on.  The 
ethics  of  Jesus,  of  course,  do  not  contain  the  last  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  or  the  last  ruling  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
or  the  last  Act  of  Congress — God  forbid.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  does  not 
contain  the  details  of  our  on-going  civilization.  If  they  did  they  would 
have  been  antiquated  long  ago.  They  are  dateless,  timeless,  eternal  prin- 
ciples ;  every  one  of  them  is  a  focalized  infinity  of  truth,  as  some  one 
has  said.  Every  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  is  as  old  as  God  and  human 
and  divine  relationships,  and  is  as  true  and  lasting  as  God's  eternal 
throne. 

Sunlight  is  as  ancient  as  the  cosmos  and  as  modern  as  the  leaves  on 
the  trees  and  the  flowers  in  your  garden.  If  you  break  a  ray  of  sunlight 
into  a  thousand  pieces  you  would  not  find  under  the  finest  microscope 
a  heliotrope  or  a  pansy  or  the  smallest  daisy,  would  you?  Not  one. 
But  let  the  sunbeam  play  on  the  planted  seed;  let  its  energy  warm  that 
seed  into  life,  and  you  get  them  all,  and  ten  thousand  other  kinds.  That 
is  the  ethics  of  Jesus ;  the  ethics  of  Jesus  is  the  sunlight  that  plays  on  the 
hurnan  heart,  and  woos  it,  and  wins  it,  and  charms  it  up  out  of  itself 
into  a  beauty  and  splendor  it  could  not  have  known  before.  Away  with 
the  idea  that  the  ethics  of  Jesus  are  antiquated.  Brethren,  the  ethics 
of  Jesus  is  law  in  the  ethical  realm  because  men  cannot  get  away  from 
him.  He  is  the  ethical  horizon  of  mankind,  and  did  you  ever  know 
anyone  to  overtake  the  horizon?  That  is  just  what  h(!  is.  Nobody  has 
ever  yet  overtaken  the  horizon  and  in  trying  to  transcend  Jesus  men 
are  trying  to  overtake  the  horizon.  Tliej*  cannot  do  it  and  they  never 
will  do  it. 


384  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

He  is  Lord  of  the  race  intellectually.  I  have  already  spoken  of  that 
in  another  connection,  and  I  will  pass  it  over,  though  much  might  be 
said.  I  will  show  how  his  conception  of  God  combines  all  the  great 
conceptions  of  philosophy,  how  the  oneness  of  monism  comes  back  in 
the  one  divine  plan,  and  how  idealism  comes  back  in  the  working  out 
of  a  well-conceived  and  consistent  plan.  But  I  cannot  dwell  on  all  those 
things;  I  have  already  hinted  at  it  and  I  pass  that  to  say  that  Jesus  is 
Lord  of  the  religious  advance  of  the  race. 

Will  you  notice  what  it  says  here, — "Be  it  known  unto  all  the 
house  of  Israel  that  God  hath  made  this  same  Jesus  whom  ye  cruci- 
fied,"— mark  it,  not  this  Jesus  who  became  incarnate,  though  that  was 
true,  or  this  Jesus  who  delivered  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  though  that 
was  true,  or  this  Jesus  who  wrought  the  miracles,  though  that  is  true, 
or  this  Jesus  who  rose  from  the  dead,  though  that  is  true — no,  but  ''God 
hath  made  this  same  Jesus  whom  ye  crucified  both  Lord  and  Christ." 
The  Lordship  of  Jesus  is  a  moral  Lordship.  It  was  the  transaction  on 
Calvary  that  made  him  Lord  in  human  history,  and  there  was  no  doubt 
a  necessity  for  that  transaction  though  we  cannot  fully  explain  it. 
There  was  a  necessity  for  that  transaction  which  goes  to  the  heart,  to 
the  bottom,  to  the  outmost  rim  of  things.  I  tell  you,  friends,  there  was 
more  in  the  death  of  Jesus  than  a  dramatic  spectacle  to  break  the  hu- 
man heart.  No  father  who  loves  his  children  would  go  to  the  fire  and 
say,  Come,  children,  I  am  going  to  prove  my  love  for  you,  see  what  I 
am  willing  to  suffer  for  you;  I  am  going  to  burn  my  hand  off  to  prove 
that  I  love  you.  You  would  say  that  that  father  was  fanatic,  a  fool, 
now  wouldn't  you?  Did  Jesus  thrust  himself  into  the  fire  thus?  But 
if  a  child  of  that  loving  father  were  to  fall  into  the  fire  and  the  father's 
breaking  heart  should  see  it,  it  would  be  the  most  fatherly  thing  if  he 
should  rush  to  the  flames  and  thrust  his  hand  in  and  rescue  the  child. 

I  say  that  in  the  atonement  of  Christ  there  was  a  necessity  that 
reaches  to  the  bottom  and  to  the  top  and  to  the  outmost  rim  of  things. 
What  it  is,  we  cannot  fully  understand  but  we  know  it  is  there,  that 
somehow  he  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  He  transacted 
with  God  as  well  as  witF  man  and  through  his  death  he  brings  us  to 
God,  and  he  comes  into  the  human  heart  and  makes  rational  forgiveness; 
shows  us  how  an  offended  God  can  be  reconciled  to  sinful  man, — how 
God  can  be  just,  as  Paul  puts  it,  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth 
in  Jesus.  It  is  because  he  thus  comes  into  man's  nature  and  knows  its 
moral  structure,  knows  the  mechanism  of  it  just  as  he  evidently  knew 
the  mechanism  of  the  spiritual  universe,  and  brings  the  two  together; 
it  is  this  that  gives  him  authority  over  the  human  heart  in  very  large 
measure.  It  is  because  Jesus  Christ  is  thus  intellectual,  and  moral, 
and  spiritual  Lord  of  the  race  that  we  progress  in  our  Western  civili- 
zation. 

In  Western  civilization  we  have  a  curious  condition  contrasted  with 
the  East.  I  have  sometimes  felt  that  man  as  distinguished  from  the 
lower    animals    has    but    one    mark    which    sets    him    apart      Men    have 


Sunday,  Juno  25.  J  U/X'Olx'D  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  385 

sometimes  said  that  man  is  distinguished  ±rom  the  lower  animals  be- 
cause he  laughs,  but  they  say  a  horse  will  laugh  sometimes,  and  I  have 
heard  people  say  that  they  have  heard  a  cow  laugh.  I  do  not  know. 
Others  have  said  man  is  distinguished  from  the  lower  animals  because 
he  reasons,  but  I  have  seen  dogs  that  seemed  almost  to  reason;  whether 
it  was  reason  pure  and  simple  I  do  not  know.  Others  have  sai<l  that 
man  is  distinguished  from  the  lower  animals  because  lie  has  speech,  but 
somebody  went  into  the  jungles  of  Africa  and  tried  to  show  us  that 
the  monkeys  have  a  language  and  animals  certainly  have  means  of  com- 
munication one  with  another.  Well,  what  is  it  that  distinguishes  man 
from  the  race  of  animal  nature?  I  think  one  thing  is  conscious  growth. 
An  eagle  has  a  keen  sense  of  vision,  but  I  never  heard  of  one  making  a 
microscope  or  a  telescope  to  supplement  his  natural  vision.  A  deer 
has  a  keen  sense  of  hearing  but  I  never  heard  of  a  deer  constructing  a 
telephone  to  supplement  his  natural  powers.  Man  does,  especially 
Western  man. 

And  yet,  my  friends,  if  you  look  into  the  East,  take  the  civilization 
of  India  and  the  civilization  of  China,  you  don't  find  the  principle  of 
progress  in  active  exercise.  You  have  arrested  development.  All  the 
civilizations  of  the  East  practically  have  the  feet  bound  as  the  Chinese 
girls.  They  have  sat  down  on  a  little  eminence  above  the  common  level 
and  their  hands  are  folded.  What  are  they  waiting  for?  They  are 
waiting  for  some  potency,  some  energy,  that  can  enter  their  life  and 
start  the  hidden  springs  of  motion,  or  rather  put  into  it  what  is  not 
there.  In  Western  civilization  that  is  Avhat  has  taken  place.  It  took 
place  there  in  that  New  Testament  time  that  I  told  about  in  the  begin- 
ning, and  Western  man  has  an  eternal  discontent.  I  sometimes  think 
the  best  s^ymbol  of  him  is  a  mallet  and  chisel  and  a  piece  of  marble.  He 
cuts  into  it  until  he  has  carved  his  ideal  as  he  sees  it ;  he  stands  away 
and  says,  ^'Oh,  beautiful,  beautiful,  perfect."  And  so  it  is  for  a  few 
moments,  or  a  few  weeks,  or  months,  or  years,  and  then  he  comes  back 
and  takes  that  and  puts  it  on  one  side,  puts  it  in  a  niche  and  says,  ''Let 
us  try  again,"  and  he  takes  the  mallet  and  chisel  and  marble  and  carves 
another  more  beautiful,  and  he  looks  at  that  a  little  while  and  then  puts 
it  away  and  then  carves  another,  then  another  and  another.  He  carves 
and  carves  and  carves,  and  whenever  he  has  carved  a  new  masterpiece, 
by  and  by  he  detects  in  it  a  flaw  and  then  he  goes  to  work  and  makes 
another.  So  that  the  masteri^ieces  of  man  are  just  the  steps  in  the  long, 
long  stairs  of  his  progress  toward  the  eternal.  It  is  because  something 
has  planted  in  his  nature  a  vision  of  the  eternal.  Who  has  done  it  and 
what? 

It  is  what  I  have  told  you  before,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  final  goal  of 
human  endeavor;  it  is  because  he  has  started  the  spirals  that  are  in  us 
to  unwind  tlieniselves  and  that  never  will  be  unwound  fully  until  we 
attain  unto  the  divine.  That  explains  the  progress  of  Western  civili- 
zation. You  know  we  despise  what  we  master.  It  is  said  of  Edison 
25 


386  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

that  lie  worked  for  months  and  years  on  the  electric  light,  fascinated 
by  the  problem,  until  he  solved  the  problem,  and  then  there  came  a  re- 
vulsion against  the  electric  light  and  he  would  walk  all  around  the 
square  to  avoid  passing  one.  We  despise  in  a  certain  sense  what  we 
have  mastered.  Beloved,  the  reason  we  do  not  despise  Jesus  is  because 
we  have  not  mastered  him;  the  reason  we  never  will  despise  him  is  be- 
cause we  never  will  master  him.  We  have,  had  two  thousand  years  of 
thought  and  experience  and  life  and  we  have  not  yet  come  to  the  point 
where  we  have  begun  to  see  his  marvelous  stature  that  lifts  itself  up  to 
the  very  divine  light  itself  and  disappears  from  view  as  we  gaze.  He 
furnishes  a  sphere  where  all  our  powers  will  have  an  eternal  task  to 
master  him.  We  cannot  conquer  Christ  with  our  thought.  We  cannot 
exhaust  him  in  all  our  experience,  and  hence  he  is  Lord  for  us.  And 
when  philosophy  and  science  that  reject  Christ  transcends  him,  it  will 
be  time  enough  to  say  that  Christ  is  antiquated. 

But  I  affirm  to-day  that  man  needs  a  master  as  truly  as  he  needs 
freedom.  Baptists  of  all  people  of  the  world  stand  for  freedom,  just  as 
fundamental  a  need  of  man  as  the  need  for  a  master.  In  your  mo- 
ments of  temptation  what  do  you  want?  Oh,  you  want  a  hand  stronger 
than  yours,  and  a  voice  with  more  authority  in  it  than  yours  to  tame  the 
lions  and  tigers  of  passion  in  your  breast.  When  you  stand  in  the 
presence  of  temptation  and  your  soul  is  wrung  by  it,  what  do  you  want? 
You  want  an  energy  that  can  come  into  your  heart  and  give  it  power  to 
overcome  the  temptation.  All  great  spirits  have  felt  it.  Plato  felt  it; 
when  he  had  worked  his  way  out  to  the  bounds  of  speculation  what  did 
he  say?  ''We  cannot  know,  we  cannot  know;  we  must  wait  till  some 
god  or  some  god-inspired  man  shall  come  and  lift  the  veil  from  our 
eyes."  Job  had  the  experience;  he  went  to  the  right  and  to  the  left 
and  forward  and  backward  searching  for  God  in  the  midst  of  his  suf- 
ferings, and  what  did  he  say?  *'0h,"  said  he,  "for  a  daysman,  some 
one  to  lay  one  hand  on  God  and  one  on  me,  some  one  to  speak  to  God 
for  me  and  speak  to  me  for  God."  All  suffering  is  messianic  in  its  out- 
come. All  pathways  of  sorrow  lead  to  the  end  of  a  road  which  has  no 
being  to  fulfil  it  save  Jesus.  Huxley,  the  typical  modern  scientific  man, 
recognized  it,  for  did  he  not  say,  ''If  there  was  some  T)ower  that  could 
come  into  my  nature  every  morning  and  wind  it  up  like  a  clock  and  make 
me  think  right  thoughts  and  do  right  deeds  all  day  I  would  close  with 
it  in  a  moment." 

My  friends,  all  deep  natures  have  that  consciousness  of  the  demand 
and  need  for  lordship,  all  of  them.  Luther  had  the  same  experience. 
We  see  him  in  Wartburg  Castle  looking  out  the  window  at  night  on  the 
long  trailing  clouds  as  they  sail  past,  and  there  he  gets  a  lesson  of  hu- 
mility as  he  bows  in  the  presence  of  the  power  that  made  the  universe 
of  grace  for  man.  At  nightfall  he  sees  the  little  bird  on  the  brancli  of 
a  tree  outlined  against  the  sky  and  he  prostrates  his  soul  before  the  infi- 
nite. He  bows  at  the  bedside  of  his  little  daughter  Margaret;  he  had 
prated  so  deeply  that  Margaret  might  be  spared.     Many  of  you  have 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  387 

had  that  experience  and  oh,  how  the  heart  yearns.  And  when  the  doc- 
tor said  little  Margaret  could  not  get  well,  the  great  apostle  and  cham- 
pion of  justification,  sat  by  the  bedside  of  little  Margaret  and  rocked 
like  an  earthquake  with  passion  and  sorrow  because  little  Margarel 
meant  so  much  to  his  life.  And  as  her  little  spirit  went  out  to  the 
other  world  he  imagined  her  little  feet  entering  the  dark  stream  of 
death  and  oh,  he  did  long  so  deeply  to  accompany  her,  but  he  could  not. 
She  must  needs  go  alone, — little  Margaret,  his  little  daughter.  And  then 
came  to  him  the  wonderful,  wonderful  consolation  that  there  is  one  who 
has  gone  through  that  shadowland  and  who  accompanies  little  Mar- 
garet. This  little  child  was  so  still  and  so  calm,  decked  for  the  grave, 
and  encountered  death  without  a  qualm.    Are  you  as  brave? 

"So  small  and  armed  with  naught  besides  her  mother's  kiss, 
She  stepped  alone  unterrified  into  the  abyss. ' ' 

Oh,  you  exclaim  that  she  did  not  know — this  babe  of  four — just  what 
it  signified  to  go.  Do  you  know  more?  Did  Plato  know  more?  Did 
Luther  know  more?  My  friends,  there  is  just  one  voice  that  has  au- 
thority in  that  hour.  It  is  the  voice  of  him  who  called  Lazarus  from 
the  dead  and  whose  hands  lifted  the  gates  of  death  from  their  hinges 
and  led  captivity  captive. 

I  must  now,  before  closing,  mention  the  method  of  Christ's  authority, 
and  the  first  thing  I  would  say  about  his  method  is  that  his  revelations 
are  meant  to  be  our  discoveries.  Christ  does  not  come  into  the  human 
heart  with  blare  of  trumpet;  he  does  not  come  with  strident  voice  of 
tyrant,  he  does  not  come  with  earthquake  shocks.  How  does  he  come? 
He  dawns  upon  men.  He  lived  before  men  so  that  men  would  discover 
his  Lordship.  What  was  it  he  said  to  the  disciples?  "Who  do  men 
say  that  I  am?"  And  what  did  Peter  say?  "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God."  He  just  lived  before  them.  And  what  did  he 
say  to  Peter?  "Tell  it  not,  that  you  have  discovered  who  I  am.  Let 
men  discover  who  I  am."  Do  you  know,  friends,  there  is  a  principle 
there  we  often  forget.  We  talk  about  the  authority  of  Jesus.  It  is  not 
the  authority  that  comes  with  a  strident,  tyrannical  imperative,  that 
says  to  men,  "Bow."  It  is  the  authority  of  the  eternal  appealing  to 
man's  heart  and  saying,  "Come  unto  me." 

Men  wonder  often  why  so  little  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  Gospels 
about  the  atonement,  and  sometimes  it  is  asserted  that  we  have  nothing 
there  in  the  New  Testament,  except  what  Paul  says,  about  the  atone- 
ment. Well.  Paul  does  say  more  about  it  than  the  Gospels  do,  but  do 
you  know,  I  think  there  was  a  divine  reserve  in  what  Jesus  said  about 
the  atonement  that  explains  it.  If  you  are  going  to  do  a  great  favor  to 
your  friends  you  do  not  prate  to  them  about  it  every  time  you  meet 
them;  you  do  not  say  much  to  them  about  it;  you  go  on  and  do  it  and 
let  them  discover  it.  When  Prince  Henrj'  of  Germany  came  to  America, 
New  York  gave  him  a  banquet  and  the  next  morning  a  newspaper  boast- 


388  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

ed  that  the  banquet  cost  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  A  quiet  old  lady 
who  read  the  statement  said,  ''It  would  be  more  fitting  for  Prince  Henry 
to  talk  about  the  price  of  that  banquet."  I  think  the  old  lady  was 
right.  Jesus  did  not  dwell  upon  the  price  he  was  going  to  pay  to  re- 
deem us;  he  went  on  and  paid  it,  and  he  meant  for  us  to  respond  to  it, 
and  the  Epistles  are  just  the  effort  of  redeemed  men  to  tell  what  they 
saw  in  it.  They  do  not  understand  it  absolutely,  there  fs  no  human 
brain  that  can  take  it  in  absolutely,  but  that  principle  of  divine  reserve 
comes  in  there,  and  that  is  why  men  were  left  to  discover  it  and  dis- 
cern it. 

Again,  the  authority,  the  Lordship  of  Jesus,  expresses  itself  by  mak- 
ing us  free.  There  is  the  paradox;  the  Lordship  of  Christ  expresses 
itself  by  making  us  free.  Now  what  do  I  mean"/  1  mean  just  the  con- 
tinuance of  what  I  have  said.  What  a  winged  word  was  that  of  Refor- 
mation times, — ''The  right  of  private  judgment."  Oh,  when  that  word 
rang  out  through  Europe  all  the  thrones  and  sovereignties  of  the  earth 
began  to  tremble.  No  wonder  the  Elector  of  Saxony  had  that  dream. 
He  said  to  Luther,  "I  had  a  dream  about  you;  I  dreamt  you  were  writ- 
ing, and  your  pen  grew  until  it  reached  across  the  table  and  then  across 
the  room  and  then  across  the  mountains  and  into  Italy  and  the  point 
of  it  touched  the  tiara  on  the  brow  of  the  man  sitting  yonder  in  Rome." 
That  is  what  took  place.  The  right  of  private  judgment  did  that,  and 
Jesus  gives  to  men  the  right  of  private  judgment.  Men  went  up  and 
down  the  earth  with  the  right  of  private  judgment  and  stood  before 
thrones  and  kings  and  exercised  the  right  of  private  judgment.  Of 
kings  and  thrones  what  did  they  say?  Many  of  them  they  condemned. 
By  and  by  in  the  exercise  of  private  judgment,  in  their  iconoelasm  they 
come  back  to  Jesus  and  exercise  it  on  him.  The  right  of  private  judg- 
ment, that  is  what  he  wants.  They  listened  to  his  teachings  and  what 
did  they  say  in  the  right  of  private  judgment?  "Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  They  looked  upon  his  moral  beauty,  and  what  did  they  say? 
"He  is  the  chief  among  ten  thousand;  the  one  altogether  lovely."  They 
followed  his  figure  up  into  the  divine  and  what  did  they  say?  "He  was 
the  effulgence  of  the  Father's  glory."  That  was  what  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment  did  with  Jesus. 

Then  what  did  they  do?  They  gathered  together  the  broken  frag- 
ments of  all  the  sovereignties  of  earth  that  they  had  shattered  in  their 
iconoelasm,  they  put  them  back  again  with  added  materials  and  they 
built  them  into  a  throne  so  high  and  so  magnificent  that  the  world  had 
never  seen  its  like;  and  they  took  the  shattered  bits  of  the  crowns  they 
had  crushed  and  broken,  and  fused  them  together  again  in  the  furnace 
of  their  love  into  another  crown  set  with  jewels;  and  then  they  took 
Jesus  whom  they  had  thus  come  to  know  in  the  exercise  of  private 
judgment,  and  seated  him  on  that  throne,  and  with  their  thanksgiving, 
and  their  adoration,  and  their  love,  and  their  praise,  they  crowned  him 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.     That  is  what  the  right  of  private 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDING  Si.  389 

judgment  does  with  Jesus  Christ  and  tliat  is  what  Jesus  wants  that  it 
shall  do. 

What  a  strange  slavery  it  is  that  Christ  inflicts!  He  puts  his  chain 
on  Edward  Caswall,  and  Edward  Caswall  went  up  and  down  the 
earth  clanking  his  chain,  and  what  did  he  say  as  he  clanked  his  chain? 

Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  thee 

With  sweetness  fills  my  breast; 
But  sweeter  far  thy  face  to  see, 

And  in  thy  presence  rest. 

Nor  voice  can  sing,  nor  heart  can  frame, 

Nor  can  the  memory  find 
A  sweeter  sound  than  thy  blest  name, 

0  Saviour  of  mankind. 

He  put  his  shackle  on  Samuel  Stennett,  and  Stennett  went  up  and  down 
the  earth  with  it  and  what  did  he  say? 

Majestic  sweetness  sits  enthroned 

Upon  the  Saviour's  brow 
His  head  with  radiant  glories  crowned. 

His  lips  with  grace  o'erflow. 

No  mortal  can  Avith  him  compare 

Among  the  sons  of  men ; 
F-airer  is  he  than  all  the  fair 

That  fill  the  heavenly  train. 

He  put  his  shackle  on  Richard  Watson  Gilder  and  what  did  he  say? 
"If  Jesus  is  a  man  and  only  a  man,  of  all  mankind,  I  say  I  will  fol- 
low him  alway ;  if  Jesus  is  a  God  and  the  only  God,  I  swear  I  will  follow 
him  through  heaven  and  hell,  through  earth,  through  sea,  through  air." 
By-and-by  you  and  I  will  shout  together,  the  slaves  of  Christ  with  his 
shackles  on  us,  and  we  will  sing,  "Oh,  what  a  strange  slavery  it  is." 
We  will  sing  together,  the  slaves  of  Christ, 

"All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name. 
Let  angels  prostrate  fall; 
Bring  forth   the   royal   diadem 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

"Ye  chosen  seed  of  Israel's  race, 
Ye  ransomed  from  the  fall, 
Hail  him  who  saves  you  by  his  grace 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all." 

That  is  the  sort  of  slavery  Christ  inflicts  on  men.  He  makes  them  free 
by  his  Lordship. 

The  last  thing  I  am  going  to  say  is  this:  the  first  paradox  of  Christ's 
Lordship  I  gave  as  this, — his  revelations  are  meant  to  become  our  dis- 


390  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAl^CE. 

coveries;  the  second  was,  he  makes  himself  Lord  by  making  us  free; 
and  the  third  is  this,  Christ's  Lordship  finds  the  culmination  of  its  ex- 
pression in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  in  the  life  of  his  church  by  the 
communication  to  the  individual  and  the  church  of  his  Lordship.  He 
transfers  his  Lordship  to  his  people,  and  he  means  that  his  people  shall 
receive  the  power  of  his  Lordship  for  their  work  on  earth.  There  is  the 
marvel  of  Christ's  Lordship,  that  he  incorporates  himself  and  incarnates 
himself  in  his  people.  What  we  need  then  is  this  transferred  Lordship, 
this  communicated  sovereignty  of  Jesus. 

''If  ye  abide  in  me  and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ask  what  ye  will  and 
it  shall  be.  Abide  in  me,  ask  what  ye  will  and  it  shall  be  done, — done 
unto  you."  Privilege  stated  in  terms  of  sovereignty.  What  you  will, — 
a  sovereignty  interpreted  in  terms  of  prayer.  _  Ask  what  you  will — 
prayer  explained  as  fellowship.  Abide  in  me  and  ask  what  ye  will. 
That  is  Christ's  program  for  his  people.  Brethren,  what  we  need  is  the 
imperative  mood.  The  trouble  with  us  has  been  we  have  been  content 
with  the  trivial.  What  have  we  got  to  do  in  the  incorporation  of  this 
power  and  Lordship  of  Jesus?  Well,  I  think  it  would  be  an  infinite 
calamity  if  this  great  Baptist  denomination  should  be  got  onto  the  side- 
track of  discussion  of  its  polity,  among  themselves  so  that  we  should 
forget  the  main  task.  Christ  is  Lord  of  the  polity,  and  Lord  of  the 
church,  and  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  Lord  of  the  heart  and  Lord  of 
the  emotions,  and  Lord  of  marriage,  and  Lord  of  the  home,  and  Lord  of 
education,  and  Lord  of  business,  and  Lord  of  the  whole  social  organism, 
and  what  we  are  called  to  do  to-day  is  to  carry  out  Christ's  Lordship  in 
every  direction. 

We  need  it  in  our  great  missionary  task.  Christ's  Lordship  is  not 
manifest  toward  the  heathen  world  sufficiently  as  it  is  embodied  in  his 
people.  That  was  a  deep  question  of  the  little  boy  who  was  looking  in 
the  missionary  book  and  came  to  a  picture  representing  pagans  burn- 
ing a  human  victim  at  the  stake.  His  mother  had  taught  him  that  God 
sees  everything  and  knows  everything,  and  he  looked  at  his  mother  and 
said,  "Does  God  see  that?"  "Yes."  "Does  God  care?"  "Yes." 
"Why  doesn't  he  put  a  stop  to  it  then?"  Will  you  answer  it?  Will 
you  answer  it?  Brethren,  there  is  just  one  answer  and  that  is  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  Your  heart  and  mine  are  the  organs  of  the  divine 
life  and  it  has  no  organ  save  as  our  hearts  are  its  organs,  our  hands  and 
feet  and  lips,  our  whole  being  are  the  channel  through  which  that  life 
finds  expression.    It  finds  no  expression  save  as  we  have  it. 

Then  we  have  the  great  social  task.  I  am  glad  the  Alliance  has  ap- 
pointed that  commission.  Oh,  we  must  face  the  moral  issues.  We  have 
the  great  question  of  integi'ity  in  business  life,  and  graft  in  political 
life,  and  everything  else  that  is  corrupt  in  society.  And  our  Christian 
life  is  so  intertwined  with  it  that  we  must  sometime  or  other  incor- 
porate the  conquering  power  of  Jesus  in  grappling  with  these  great  ques- 
tions. It  means  that  the  kingdom  is  coming,  for  the  kingdom  is  the  cor- 
relative of  the  Lordship  of  Christ,  and  the  kingdom  means  the  end  of 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  391 

predatory  business  methods,  that  know  and  give  no  quarter.  It  means 
the  end  of  the  sweat-shop,  it  means  the  end  of  the  disease-breeding  tene- 
ment-house, it  means  the  cessation  of  the  cry  of  children  in  factories 
overworked;  it  means  the  end  of  graft;  it  means  the  end  of  divorce  in 
the  sense  in  which  men  are  practising  it  in  our  time;  it  means  the  return 
of  the  Sabbath  in  its  sacredness,  and  means  the  observance  of  it;  it 
means  the  purification  of  business  and  the  purification  of  polities;  it 
means  the  equalizing  of  human  conditions, — not  perhaps  in  the  logical 
social  sense, — but  so  that  every  man,  according  to  the  Parable  of  the 
Talents,  shall  have  and  give  according  to  his  ability;  that  God  will  be- 
stow on  every  man  not  only  the  talent  but  the  opportunity.  And  it  is 
for  the  Christian  man  and  woman,  it  is  for  the  church  of  Christ  to 
make  the  world  see  and  appreciate  that  his  sovereignty  is  destined  to 
make  its  way  in  and  through  them.  Great  tasks  they  are,  but  the 
trouble  is  that  w^e  have  been  content  with  the  trivial  task. 

I  agree  with  Ruskin  when  he  says,  "I  am  tired  of  the  religion  of  the 
organ  and  the  aisle,  the  twilight  revival  and  vesper  service,  gas-lighted 
and  gas-inspired  Christianity;  I  am  tired  of  it."  Oh,  we  have  been 
content  to  sit  snug  and  content  with  our  wealth  and  content  with  our 
pews  and  content  with  our  niggardly  giving,  and  content  with  our 
luke-warmness.  We  have  been  trivial,  we  have  not  incorporated  the 
sovereign  energy  or  power  that  wrought  in  the  early  church,  we  have 
not  had  the  communication  of  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  to  our  lives.  Great 
tasks,  yes,  but  Jesus  did  not  come  into  the  world  to  catch  snow-birds  nor 
to  kill  rabbits.  Chesterton  is  right,  he  has  been  a  lion-tamer  from  the 
beginning,  and  he  is  a  lion-tamer  still,  and  he  wants  his  people  to  be- 
come lion-tamers,  and  the  reason  we  have  not  done  more  is  that  we  have 
not  conceived  of  our  mission  as  a  mission  to  tame  lions.  When  he 
started  out  in  the  world  what  lions  he  had  before  him  in  the  old  Ro- 
man government,  and  how  one  by  one  he  throttled  them  and  silenced 
them  and  to-day  he  is  calling  on  his  people  to  come  again  to  him  and 
receive  of  his  power  and  energy,  and  broaden  their  horizon  and  mission 
and  conceive  of  that  mission  as  comprising  the  evangelization  of  the 
community,  the  evangelization  of  the  nation,  the  evangelization  of  the 
world,  and  the  socialization  of  the  Christian  sense  of  every  form  of  hu- 
man endeavor,  of  every  form  of  human  institution  and  organization. 
He  is  calling  you  and  me  to  a  fresh  grasp  of  that  power  that  he  wants 
us  to  share  with  the  early  disciples  in  this  reception  of  his  communi- 
cated Lordship. 

We  must  get  into  the  imperative  mood.  We  get  into  the  optative 
mood  and  say  we  wish  it  were  so ;  or  into  the  subjunctive  mood  and  say 
if  the  conditions  were  so  we  would  do  wonders;  and  we  get  into  the  in- 
dicative mood  and  begin  to  assert  things.  But  what  we  need  is  the  im- 
perative mood.  We  get  it  when  Christ  enters.  The  pastor  gets  it  and 
the  church  feels  the  pressure,  the  energetic  pressure,  the  insistent 
pressure  of  a  will,  a  concentrated  will  that  knoAvs  no  obstacle  that  it 
cannot  overcome;  and  Avhenever  a  church  feels  a  pressure  of  a  will  that 


392  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

is  thus  consecrated  and  filled  with  the  divine  energy,  it  knows  at  once 
it  has  got  to  give  way,  it  knows  a  revival  is  going  to  come.  And  when 
the  church  of  Christ  gets  into  the  imperative  mood,  the  world  feels  its 
pressure  and  knows  that  things  must  give  way. 

Christ  is  calling  his  people  to  the  imperative  mood.  ''He  must  reign 
till  all  enemies  have  been  put  under  his  feet,"  says  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles.  Paul,  Paul,  what  do  you  mean?  Do  you  mean  that  literally*? 
Why,  Paul,  are  you  willing  to  climb  the  mountains  of  Asia  Minor  and 
thread  the  deserts  and  wildernesses?  ''He  must  reign  till  he  has  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet."  Paul,  they  are  going  to  put  you  in  jail  in 
Philippi,  they  are  going  to  put  you  in  stocks  and  irons.  "He  must  reign 
till  he  has  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet."  Are  you  going  to  Rome? 
They  will  put  you  in  prison  and  behead  you.  "He  must  reign  till  he 
has  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet."  The  imperative  mood;  the  imj^era- 
tive  mood. 

Oh,  beloved,  have  you  been  in  the  subjunctive  mood  or  the  optative 
mood,  in  the  wishing  mood  or  the  conditional  mood  ?  Let  us  come  to 
God  to-day  and  ask  God  to  put  in  our  souls  the  energy  of  the  divine 
imperative  of  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  means  that  it  shall  find 
utterance  and  expression  in  your  life  and  mine.  May  God  enable  us  to 
appreciate  it  and  enable  us  to  realize  it  as  we  go  forth  from  this  place. 
Now,  I  ask  that  we  sing  together,  and  try  to  make  it  our  prayer,  the 
hymn  I  referred  to  a  few  moments  ago, — "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus' 
Name." 

Hymn. 

Benediction  pronounced  by  Rev.  S.  J.  Porter. 


FOURTEENTH  SESSION. 

Sunday  Afternoon,  June  25,  1911. 
Session  opened  at  3.30  with  a  song  service  led  by  Harry  E.  Lincoln. 
The  devotional  service  was  led  by  Madame  Yasnovsky,  of  Russia. 
Hymn,  "Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus." 
Prayer  by  Madam  Yasnovsky. 
The  special  chairman  for  the  session  was  Dr.  John  Haslam,  of  England. 

CHAIRMAN'S  ADDRESS. 

By  Rev.  JOHN  HASLAM,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  Hist.  Soc. 
Principal  of  New  College,  Harrogate,  England. 

A  few  months  ago  the  honored  pastor  of  this  church  told  the  following 
story:  A  lady  and  her  boy  were  traveling  from  Philadelphia  to  Pitts- 
burg, and  as  they  drew  near  the  Horse-shoe  Curve,  a  gentleman  noticing 
how  keenly  the  boy  was  interested  in  that  magnificent  scenery,  which 
once  seen  can  never  be  forgotten,  offered  him  a  seat  in  the  observation 


Sunday,  ,Iuik'  2.").  |  RECOh'J)  OF  J'h'OCKKDlXClH.  393 

car.  Tliis  was  acceptt'd  and  the  liltle  fellow  was  spellbound  as  he  iiazed 
around.  The  train  rushed  into  the  tunnel,  and  as  it  plunged  into  the 
darkness  he  cried  out,  ''Mother!  mother!  why  is  it  dark?"  She  pressed 
him  close  to  lier  side  and  whispered,  ''Don't  be  frightened;  we  must 
l)ass  through  the  tunnel  to  get  home."  In  a  moment  they  passed  into 
the  daylight  and  the  darkness  was  forgotten.  Is  not  this  beautiful  ? 
Does  it  not  express  God 's  plan  of  life  and  teach  us  lessons  how  to  live  ? 
This  is  an  age  of  luxury.  Too  many  ask  what  is  easy,  what  is  pleasant, 
what  will  save  trouble  rather  than  what  is  my  duty?  They  want  to  get 
the  result  Avithout  the  effort,  to  reach  home  but  avoid  the  tunnel.  But  it 
is  impossible.  Minerals  and  gems  were  made  by  convulsions  and  by 
fires,  so  the  noblest  characters  are  produced  by  anxious  thought  and 
strenuous  and  persistent  toil. 

One  of  your  writers  has  ventured  to  give  a  new  beatitude:  "Blessed 
be  drudgery,"  and  he  contends  that  all  Christ's  beatitudes  are  based 
upon  something  hard  or  painful.  Blessed  are  the  meek — they  who  hun- 
ger and  thirst — the  reviled  and  persecuted — so  he  says,  "Blessed  be 
drudgery."  Christ's* conception  of  happiness  and  nobleness  is  not  that 
of  the  world.  His  beatitudes  are  at  variance  with  popular  theories,  but 
God's  plan  abides  and  if  we  are  to  live  strong,  useful,  pure,  and  beauti- 
ful lives  we  must  accept  in  the  days  of  our  youth  when  habits  are  being 
forrned  and  characters  are  moulded  the  inexorable  and  unalterable  laws 
of  life.  First  the  agony,  then  the  peace,  proportioned  to  the  agony, 
first  the  hunger  and  the  thirst,  then  the  bread  and  water  of  life;  first  the 
feeling  of  nakedness  and  impoverishment,  then  the  clothing  with  white 
raiment  and  enrichment  by  God  and  the  white  stone  with  the  name  of 
Him  that  overcometh  written  upon  it;  first  the  sowing  and  the  Aveeping, 
working  hard  and  waiting,  but  afterwards  the  golden  reaping  and  har- 
vest home  and  grateful  song.  It  is  now  as  in  apostolic  days:  "Through 
much  tribulation  Ave  must  enter  the  kingdom."  Of  every  kingdom  this  is 
true.  If  you  remember  this  fact  it  Avill  fortify  you  against  the  fiery  darts 
of  the  devil  and  comfort  you  in  lonely  hours,  Avhen  assailed  by  the 
tempter,  nerve  you  for  fresh  conflicts  and  enterprises,  and  when  the 
course  is  finished  you  Avill  simply  pass  through  the  "valley  of  the  shadoAV 
of  death"  and  on  the  other  side  is  home. 

That  boy  was  quieted  because  of  his  relation  to  his  mother.  Her  moth- 
erly heart  prompted  the  comforting  message.  I  Avant  you  to  realize  that 
your  relation  to  Jesus  is  precisely  that  of  the  boy  with  his  mother.  She 
Avas  by  his  side  and  he  felt  safe  and  happy  as  lier  love  encompassed  him, 
and  the  sAveet  tones  of  her  voice  Avere  heard  in  the  darkness.  But  Jesus 
is  just  as  near  to  you.  His  love  Avas  the  fount  from  which  her  love 
flowed.  It  was  only  a  single  ray  from  the  gi-eat  Father  of  Light  Avho  is 
Father  and  Mother  too,  for  He  does  not  hesitate  to  say,  "As  one  whom 
his  mother  comforteth  so  Avill  I  comfort  you." 

The  explanation  of  the  indifference  and  irreligion  Avhich  abounds,  the 
hesitancy  of  your  young  men  and  Avomen  to  come  out  boldly  on  the  Lord's 
side,  is  ignorance!  You  do  not  know  God.  This  is  life  eternal  to  knoAv 
the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  Avhom  He  liath  sent,  and 
this  is  yours  if  you  desire  it.  "If  any  man  Avill  do  His  will  he  shall 
know,"  and  believe  me  you  cannot  live  a  ti-ue  life  Avithout  it,  for  God 
has  made  you  for  Himself.  His  heart  is  yearning  over  you.  He  is 
seeking  you.  He  gave  His  Avell-beloved  Son  to  redeem  you.  His  spirit 
is  flashing  light  into  your  soul,  revealing  your  darkness  and  sinfulness 


394  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

and  feebleness  and  manifold  needs.  His  spirit  is  illumining  the  cross 
on  which  the  Saviour  stretches  out  His  arms  to  embrace  you  and  to  hold 
you  so  that  "none  can  pluck  you  out  of  His  hands,"  and  He  beseeches 
you  now  and  here,  in  this  solemn  hour,  in  full  and  glad  surrender  to 
"yield  yourselves  unto  Him  and  enter  His  sanctuary" — then  the  great 
work  of  life  will  be  done.  Your  relation  to  Him  will  determine  the 
character  of  your  future.  Life  will  be  lived  under  new  conditions. 
Everything  will  assume  a  different  aspect  and  be  charged  with  new  and 
sublime  possibilities.  You  will  have  found  the  way  to  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ  and  be  able  when  you  pray  to  say  "Father!" 

Edward  Irving  was  once  called  to  see  a  dying  boy  in  a  London  attic, 
passing  away  ignorant  of  God  and  of  destiny.  Christian  friends  had 
been  speaking  to  him,  but  their  words  made  no  impression.  Irving 
placed  his  hand  upon  the  boy's  forehead  and  said,  "My  boy,  God  loves 
you,"  The  boy  opened  his  eyes,  looked  into  Irving 's  face,  saw  there 
sympathy  and  conviction  and  said,  "Does  He?  Then  I'll  love  Ilim!" 
That  was  all  but  it  was  enough,  and  the  lad  passed  from  his  bed  of  rags 
to  the  heavenly  mansions. 

T  wish  I  could  lay  my  hand  upon  you  and  addressing  you  by  name 
say:  "God  loves  you!"  Do  you  believe  it?  He  came  to  save  the  lost. 
Stand  before  that  on  which  the  Saviour  loved  and  died  and  say.  "All 
tliis  for  me,  for  me."  He  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  Bought 
with  His  blood,  "I  am  not  my  own."  It  is  Jesus  who  calls  and  trans- 
forms. What  happened  to  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  his  way  to  Damascus  is  in 
essence  typical  of  every  conversion.  Light  above  the  brightness  of  the 
sun  flashed  upon  him  to  discover  and  reveal.  That  light  revealed  to  Saul 
what  he  really  was.  Yea,  more,  it  revealed  Jesus  Christ.  It  revealed 
his  creed  and  his  life  work,  and  from  henceforth  all  was  new.  May  you 
be  able  to  say,  as  he  said,  "I  live."  The  realizing  of  personality  is  the 
beginning  of  a  true  life.  "I  am"  a  person  not  a  bubble  on  the  lake. 
Yet  not  I,  personality  surrendered,  captivated,  interpreted,  enthroned, 
"Not  I  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  That's  the  secret  of  a  strong  and 
happy  life.  It  may  be  it  will  be  yours  if  you  decide  for  Christ,  accept- 
ing Him  as  Saviour,  enthroning  Him  as  King,  acknowledging  Him  as 
Lord,  and  living  only  to  do  His  will  and  glorify  His  name. 

My  dear  friends,  this  is  no  ordinary  occasion.  During  the  past  few 
weeks  great  meetings  have  been  held  and  inspiring  words  spoken.  But 
no  meeting  either  in  itself  or  in  its  far-reaching  issues  is  superior  to 
this.  You  represent  the  life  of  young  America!  To-day  this  temple  is 
yours.  In  a  grander  sense  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  will  be  yours  to- 
morrow. We  are  passing,  you  are  coming,  and  our  great  anxiety  is  to 
train  and  to  consecrate  successors.  Young  Americans !  Realize  the 
grandeur  and  significance  of  your  position.  There  is  nothing  exactly  like 
it  in  the  whole  world.  Heirs  of  an  unparalleled  past,  custodians  of  a 
precious  heritage,  builders  of  a  future  nation,  we  come  to  tell  you  as 
the  result  of  our  experience  how  to  live  worthily.  The  Republic  of 
America  cannot  live  without  Jesus  Christ  and  His  gospel. 

Some  countries  in  the  old  world  have  lived  and  may  live  a  little  longer, 
a  sort  of  life  without  education  or  true  religion.  But  not  this.  The 
inscription  on  the  Boston  Library  tells  us  that !  Your  fathers  based  the 
Constitution  upon  religious  principles.  The  Bible  was  their  statute 
book.    In  establishing  a  church  they  begun  a  nation,  and  the  nation  will 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECOIU)  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  395 

collapse  and  disintegrate  if  these  principles  are  not  maintained.  But 
they  can  only  be  maintained  by  men  who  believe  in  them.  Carlyle  once 
said,  "A  man  who  would  do  faithfully  must  believe  firmly."  Your  best 
Presidents  have  been  of  this  type.  Their  biographies  are  full  of 
illustrations  of  the  depth  of  their  convictions,  and  because  "knowledge 
and  religion  have  been  the  stability"  of  your  times,  your  progress  and 
development  have  been  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Yours  is  a  position  of 
awful  responsibility  and  with  all  the  passion  I  can  command  I  want 
to  urge  you  to  realize  it,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  rise  to  it. 

Never  pass  your  City  Hall  without  looking  upon  the  Pilgrim  statue. 
I  never  do!  There  he  stands,  in  primitive  attire  with  his  feet  firmly 
planted  on  the  rock.  He  stands  erect,  fearless;  his  face  is  furrowed 
with  years  of  privation  and  care  and  His  lips  are  closed.  His  eyes 
are  partly  uplifted  and  his  face  tells  of  the  serenity  of  faith.  He  has  a 
staff  in  his  hand  for  he  is  journeying  to  a  celestial  city,  but  he  is  not 
unmindful  of  his  duty  here.  Grand  old  Pilgrim  of  whom  our  fathers 
were  not  worthy.  But  the  grandest  thing  about  the  figure  and  the 
explanation  of  all,  is  under  his  arm  and  close  to  his  heart  is  the  Bible. 
So  let  it  be  with  you.  Live  strenuous  lives  witnessing  for  Jesus  and 
ne'er  forget  the  wormwood. 

Your  city  fathers  did  right  to  place  in  the  front  of  the  City  Hall  a 
statue  of  the  Pilgrim  with  the  Bible  under  his  arm.  Never  pass  it  with- 
out the  thought  that  there  is  the  secret  of  your  greatness.  Wycliffe's 
translation  of  the  Bible  emancipated  England.  That  book  is  the  founda- 
tion stone  of  your  free  republic. 

I  want  to  remind  you  that  this  nation  has  been  made  by  the  earnest- 
ness, the  strenuous  lives  of  your  fathers.  They  sacrificed  everything 
from  a  sense  of  duty  and  the  wilderness  has  been  made  glad  and  a  pros- 
perous nation  flourishes  where  savages  once  roamed. 

I  know  not  how  it  be  with  you,  but  in  England  I  often  fear  we  have 
lost  the  spirit  which  characterized  our  fathers.  We  have  not  the  same 
enthusiasm  in  Christian  work  and  in  the  world.  The  love  of  pleasure 
seems  to  be  increasing.  It  is  not  thus  that  nations  prosper.  Paul  in  his 
old  age  wrote  his  son  Timothy  :  ' '  Take  thy  share  of  hardship. ' '  I  com- 
mend that  to  you!  Take  up  your  cross  for  "he  that  loseth  life  for 
Christ's  sake  finds  it."  Welcome  the  difficult.  In  the  retrospect  the 
deepest  satisfaction  is  derived  from  the  remembrance  of  the  struggles, 
the  heavy  tasks  faithfully  done,  the  sacrifices  made.  There  is  no  satis- 
faction in  the  remembrance  of  duties  evaded  or  the  self-indulgences  en- 
joyed "for  a  season."  I  congratulate  you  on  being  young,  on  the  pros- 
pect opening  out  before  you,  and  I  plead  with  you  now  to  enthrone 
Jesus  Christ  as  King  and'^Lord,  and  "for  the  joy  set  before  you"  en- 
dure that  despising  the  shame,  ne'er  forget  the  wormwood  and  the  gall. 
Go  spread  your  trophies  at  His  feet  and  crown  Plim  Lord  of  all. 

This  afternoon  we  are  assembled  to  hear  brethren  speak,  and  we  want 
above  all  things  to  have  a  high  spiritual  tone,  and  I  am  sure  there  will 
be  nothing  like  applause.  We  want  to  have  the  silence  when  God  can 
speak  to  the  soul.  I  have  much  pleasure  first  of  all  in  introducing  to  you 
my  long-esteemed  and  honored  friend.  Rev.  P.  T.  Tliomson.  a  friend  of 
young  men  and  women,  who  has  been  the  instrument  in  building  one  of 
our  largest  institutions  for  young  men  and  women  in  the  centre  of  Eng- 


396  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

lantl,  a  man  who  has  had  strong  convictions,  and  who  has  been  in  prison 
two  or  three  times  for  conscience'  sake.  ''Thou  must  thyself  be  true  if 
thou  truth  would  teach,"  and  he  has  incarnated  his  creed  in  his  life. 

The  three  following  addresses  were  on  the  general  theme : 
CONSECRATION. 

The  first  address  was  by 

Rev.  P.  T.  THOMSON,  M.  A. 

Consecration  has  two  sides — one  personal,  the  other,  social.  Character 
is  intensely  individual,  but  it  has  enormous  social  values.  The  finest 
offering  to  humanity  is  the  life  that  is  olfered  to  God. 

In  every  valid  spiritual  experience  there  are  two  calls.  The  first  is  the 
call  to  character :  the  second  is  the  call  to  service.  The  second  is  con- 
tingent on  the  first  and  both  go  towards  a  complete  consecration.  Take 
Moses  as  an  illustration.  His  life  in  the  court  of  Pharaoh  was  one  of 
charm,  of  culture, — of  social  sweetness.  He  had  everything  that  a  young- 
man  conscious  of  great  gifts  could  desire.  There  was  only  one  shadow, — 
the  shadow  of  the  reproach  of  Israel.  The  bitter  cry  of  his  people  rang 
in  his  ears,  and  not  all  the  glittering  attractions  of  his  courtly  life  could 
exorcise  it  from  his  soul.  It  was  brought  home  to  him  that  he  should 
give  it  all  up.  He  was  faced  with  the  challenge  of  an  overwhelming 
choice.  His  manhood  and  all  it  might  become  was  at  stake.  It  was  a 
bitter  thing  to  have  to  do,  but  he  forsook  the  i^alace.  He  deliberate!}' 
made  shipwreck  of  his  career.  He  chose  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  peo- 
ple of  God. 

That  was  the  first  call — the  summons  to  empty  the  cup  of  its  choicest 
contents.  Years  jDass  and  again  God's  voice  is  heard,  in  that  desert  cre- 
ated by  his  own  self-devotion.  This  time  it  is  a  call  to  service.  The  cup 
that  had  been  emptied  of  pleasure  is  now  to  be  filled  with  power.  The 
life  that  had  been  sterilized  of  self  is  now  to  be  fertilized  with  service. 
"1  will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh  that  thou  mayest  bring  forth  thy  people, 
the  children  of  Israel,  out  of  Egypt."  The  first  call  forbade  him  to  be  a 
prince  of  Egypt;  the  second  ordained  him  a  prince  in  Israel.  He  was 
bidden  to  forfeit  Egyptian  rank :  when  be  obeyed  he  was  given  world- 
wide influence.  Because  he  renounced  being  counsellor  to  Pharaoh,  he 
was  summoned  to  be  legislator  for  humanity. 

The  two  calls :  the  two  sides  of  consecration :  its  natural  development 
and  history.  Let  no  young  man  complain  when  called  upon  to  crucify 
the  flesh  and  the  lusts  thereof  that  God  is  niggard  of  his  pleasures.  God 
is  not  niggard  of  your  pleasures :  He  is  jealous  of  your  powers.  The 
path  of  duty  is  the  way  to  glory.  Self-repression,  self-denial — these  first : 
afterwards,  self-realizaton,  self -fulfilment.  Duty  first :  service  next.  A 
man  must  win  a  character  before  he  can  be  entrusted  Avith  a  mission. 
The  personal  act  is  surrender:  the  social  consequence  is  influence.  The 
self-offered  life  becomes  the  self-propagating  life.  To  be  given  to  God  is 
to  be  given  to  man.  Individual  consecration  thus  has  a  social  motive  and 
a  social  aim.     And  that  is  what  our  Lord  Himself  has  taught  in  one  of 


Suiulay,  .luuc   2.").  |  h'HCOlN)  OF  J']{OVJJJJDL\a.'i.  397 

His  lioliesl  and  iiiosl  penetrating  words:  "For  their  sakes,  1  sanctity 
myself. ' ' 

i  dwell  ui)on  this  because  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  opens  out  just 
such  social  horizons  of  the  consecrated  lite.  First  ot  all  because  it  brings 
the  challenge  of  our  great  Baptist  dead.  The  grave  which  lies  across  a 
man's  path — a  brother's,  a  parent's,  a  wife's,  a  little  child's — is  one  of 
the  strongest  motives  to  consecration.  Well,  to-day  voices  come  to  us 
from  hallowed  Baptist  graves.  There  is  a  glorious  company  of  Baptist 
witnesses  encompassing  us.  The  Roman  Church  has  its  patron  saints. 
However  we  may  mourn  the  abuses  engendered  by  its  hagiology,  we  can 
see  that  there  is  an  admirable  side  to  the  veneration  of  the  Roman  Church 
for  its  august  dead.  You  know  that  often  the  monastery  of  the  Middle 
Ages  took  its  name  from  some  great  exemplar  of  the  devout  life,  whose 
bones  lay  under  the  altar,  and  whose  figure  afiame  with  splendor  in  the 
stained  glass  of  the  long  chapel  Avindows  gleamed  down  upon  the  breth- 
ren as  they  prayed. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime. 

Never  forget  that  we  Baptists  too  have  our  sainted  dead.  To-day  in  our 
Sunday-schools  throughout  the  world  our  young  people  have  been  re- 
minded of  their  high  ancesti'y.  The  youthful  Baptist  imagination  has 
been  on  pilgrimage  to  the  great  shrines  of  Baptist  story.  Bunhill  fields 
where  Bunyan  lies :  the  banks  of  the  Hoogli  where  Carey  is  buried :  that 
unmarked  spot  of  ocean  where  the  body  of  Judson  was  committed  to  the 
deep :  and  NorAvood — the  resting-place  of  the  spent  frame  of  Charles 
Haddon  Spurgeon.  Time  would  fail  to  tell  the  complete  tale  of  the  long 
roll  of  Baptist  heroes  and  martyrs.  Aye  and  some  of  you  know  a  corner, 
little  likely  to  gain  a  place  in  historical  records,  some  green  mound  where 
the  flowers  of  loving  memory  never  fade — perhaps  a  mother's  grave — as 
powerful  a  Baptist  testimony  as  any.  Being  dead  they  yet  speak.  Let 
us  be  still  for  a  moment,  and  listen.  Summon  up  to  the  sessions  of  silent 
thought  remembrance  of  all  our  saints  who  from  their  labors  rest. 

Are  we  worthy  of  them?  It  is  so  easy  for  us  simply  to  enjoy  privi- 
leges for  which  they  bled.  Visitors  to  the  cities  of  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope are  familiar  with  those  wide  and  pleasant  thoroughfares  which  go 
.under  the  name  of  boulevards.  Paris  is  noted  for  her  boulevards,  where 
often  in  the  summer  twilight,  under  a  sky  of  fading  rose,  lights  begin  to 
twinkle  through  the  trees:  music  trembles  in  the  air:  and  the  cafes  are 
filled  with  a  pleasure-loving  throng.  Such  are  the  boulevards.  Do  you 
know  what  boulevard  means?  The  fact  is  it  is  the  same  word  as  bul- 
wark. These  haunts  of  pleasure  were  first  constructed  on  the  site  of 
disused  fortifications.  Now  invested  with  charm  and  gaiety,  once  they 
were  the  scenes  of  warfare  and  of  death.  Ground  that  once  reddened 
with  the  blood  of  heroes  has  become  the  resort  of  voluptuaries.  The 
battlefield  has  become  a  playground.  Where  a  former  age  fought,  the 
present  age  promenades.  The  other  day  in  Now  York  T  passed  a  gilded, 
gaudy  show,  the  entrance  to  which  was  embellished  with  stucco  casts 
of  Ceorge  Washington  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  0,  mighty  dead!  What 
violence  is  offered  you!  They  lived  and  died  for  freedom  and  men  now 
step  to  indulgence  over  their  graves.  Their  Via  Dolorosa  has  become 
a  primrose  path.    That  is  a  standing  danger.    The  spoils  our  great  Bap- 


398  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

tist  forbears  wrested  so  hardly  from  the  fields  of  death,  we  may  too 
easily  squander  on  common  life.  Consecrated  memories  should  make 
consecrated  men.  Every  Baptist  grave,  every  witness  of  the  past,  every 
suffering,  every  toil  of  our  Baptist  past  pleads  with  us  now.  Who  will  be 
baptized  for  the  dead"?    "For  their  sakes,  I  sanctify  myself." 

I  come  to  another  social  motive  to  consecration.  Our  Baptist  World 
Alliance  not  only  reminds  us  of  a  great  tradition,  it  brings  vividly  before 
our  eyes  the  great  catholic  communion  to  which  we  belong.  On  this 
Lord's  day,  from  its  dawn  in  the  flaming  Orient  to  its  going  down  in  the 
isles  of  the  Pacific,  Baptist  voices  have  belted  and  are  belting  the  whole 
wide  world  with  a  cordon  of  praise.  " Civis  Romanus  sum"  was  the 
proud  boast  of  the  ancient  Roman — ''I  am  a  Roman  citizen."  Well, 
having  regard  to  all  it  implies,  having  regard  to  the  free  and  loving 
brotherhood  to  which  it  is  the  passport  and  to  the  heroic  witness  and 
high  endeavor  for  which  it  ought  to  stand,  it  is  a  prouder  thing  to  say, 
I  am  a  Baptist.  It  gives  us  citizenship  in  an  empire  of  leal  hearts,  ' '  Out 
of  every  nation,  of  all  tribes  and  peoples  and  tongues"  Noblesse  oblige. 
To  have  a  place  in  it  is  a  call  to  everyone  to  purify  himself. 

The  toil,  the  devotion,  the  character  of  all  our  people  is  a  challenge  to 
each :  the  consecrated  character  of  each  is  a  challenge  to  all.  At  these 
gatherings  we  have  met  those  of  whom  we  can  say  that  they  are  our  joy 
and  crown.  We  thank  God  at  every  remembrance  of  them.  Here  we 
have  learned  of  Daniel  W]iltshire  the  lone  laborer  in  the  Bahamas :  we 
have  looked  upon  Besson  and  Fetler  and  Scalera  and  Pavloff  and  Capek : 
we  have  seen  face  to  face  our  brethren  from  Russia  and  Southeastern 
Europe,  who  are  bearing  the  brunt  of  a  warfare  that  recalls  the  most 
glorious  annals  of  Christian  chivalry.  They  are  our  standard  bearers  on 
the  fire-swept  regions  of  the  field.  The  standards  are  riddled  with  shot 
and  shell,  but  they  are  still  held  aloft,  and  please  God  will  be  held  aloft. 
They  bear  in  their  bodies  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus — affidavits  in  liv- 
ing flesh  to  the  power  and  glory  and  conquering  grace  of  Christ,  sworn 
statements  signed  and  sealed  with  the  marks  of  the  knout,  written  in 
blood,  to  the  kingship  and  crown  rights  of  the  Redeemer.  It  is  a  proud 
thing  and  it  is  a  humbling  thing  to  be  their  comrades-in-arms. 

Can  anyone  who  was  present  on  Thursday  morning  and  saw  these  men 
presented  one  by  one  and  heard  the  bare  recital  of  their  sufferings  for 
His  name's  sake  leave  Philadelphia  with  no  deeper  consecration?  We 
gave  them  applause  but  Oh!  there  are  things  beyond  applause.  I  ap- 
plauded for  a  bit,  but  I  had  to  give  it  up  when  that  aged  brother  was 
presented,  who  spent  nine  years  in  prison,  cut  off  from  wife  and  chil- 
dren, and  yet  maintaining  his  witness  in  gaol  to  the  conversion  of  fifty 
criminals.  That  awed  me:  it  shamed  me.  ''A  broken  and  a  contrite 
heart,  0,  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise."  Brethren,  we  are  on  holy 
ground,  as  if  we  had  seen  the  uplifted  face  of  Stephen,  when  the  heavens 
opened  and  he  saw  the  glory  of  God  and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right 
hand  of  God.  And  witnessing  such  devotion,  surely  we  say  to  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil,  "Stand  ye  on  that  side  for  on  this  are  we." 
"For  their  sakes,  let  us  sanctify  ourselves." 

And  now  the  social  aim  of  consecration  emerges.  What  is  the  final 
meaning  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  ?  It  is  an  alliance  of  Baptists  all 
over  the  world.  Is  it  an  alliance  merely  for  a  name,  a  theory,  or  a  de- 
nomination? That  were  a  small  thing.  No,  it  is  the  Baptist  World  Alli- 
ance, because  it  is  an  alliance  to  save  the  world.     The  late  Professor 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  399 

James  said  that  what  our  age  needs  is  tlie  moral  equivalent  of  war.  It 
is  here.  ' '  We  war  not  against  tlesh  and  blood,  but  against  principalities 
and  powers,  against  the  world  rulers  of  this  darkness,  against  the  spir- 
itual hosts  of  wickedness."  The  line  of  battle  is  far-flung  but  whether 
in  Philadelphia,  London  or  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  Welsh  hills  or  under 
the  Southern  Cross,  the  issue  is  the  same.  We  are  out  on  a  great  war 
of  emancipation.  We  are  out  to  deliver  men  from  the  bondage  of  sin 
and  death.     The  world's  misery  and  need  challenge  to  consecration. 

I  noticed  the  other  week  that  some  priests  of  an  obscure  Samaritan 
sect  were  in  London  and  their  verdict  on  its  whirling  tides  was  that  it 
was  ''a  wild,  mad  life."  And  you  know  the  despair  of  much  of  our 
modern  litei-ature,  which  would  hail  the  advent  of  some  kindly  comet 
that  would  sweep  our  planet  into  eternal  night.     Poor  world ! 

Onl}^  like  souls  I  see  the  folk  thereunder 

Bound  who  should  conquer,  slaves  who  should  be  kings, — 

Hearing  their  one  hope  with  an  empty  wonder, 

Sadly  contented  in  a  show  of  things; — 

Then  with  a  rush  the  intolerable  craving 

Shivers  throughout  all  like  a  trumpet-call, — 

Oh !  to  save  these !  to  perish  for  their  saving. 

Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all. 

The  world  sneers  at  the  consecrated  life,  but  our  poor  world  has  no  hope 
save  in  the  consecrated  life.  The  vast  dim  multitudes  out  yonder, — the 
dissatisfied,  the  miserable,  the  self-destroyed,  the  outcast-tear-stained 
faces,  broken  lives  and  broken  hearts  challenge  you  to  the  holy  war. 
For  this  sad  world's  sake,  let  us  consecrate  ourselves. 

Such  then  are  some  of  the  social  implications  of  consecration.  I  close 
by  reminding  you,  however,  that  the  supreme  challenge  of  all  comes  from 
Jesus  Christ. 

What  has  brought  us  to  Philadelphia  from  the  ends  of  the  earth?  A 
common  name?  No.  A  common  cause?  No.  It  is  a  common  Lord. 
What  a  marvellous  power  His  is.  Who  can  draw  men  so  diverse  into  the 
fellowship  of  this  memorable  week !  Though  we  have  never  met  before 
and  shall  never  meet  again,  we  have  looked  into  each  other's  faces  with 
trust  and  understanding.  Just  because  beneath  all  surface  differences 
there  is  the  same  undjdng  attachment  to  the  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all. 
Is  there  anyone  else  but  He  who  by  drawing  us  to  Himself  can  draw  us 
close  to  one  another? 

We  are  here  as  His  witnesses.  Every  delegate  from  whatever  clime,  if 
put  into  the  witness  box,  would  give  evidence  that  He  is  all  He  claims 
to  be.  And  it  is  their  desire  that  everyone  who  hears  their  testimony 
should  himself  put  Christ  to  the  proof. 

This  our  Lord  is  here  now.  Forget  everyone  else.  Forget  this  Alli- 
ance. Forget  this  meeting.  Let  His  personal  call  to  you  hedge  you  in 
witli  solitude  even  in  this  crowd.  We  are  not  "converted  in  companies 
and  baptized  in  platoons."  To  you  He  says.  ''Follow  Me."  It  is  not  an 
easy  thing.  Self-conquest:  then  world  conquest.  The  cross:  then  the 
sceptre.  But  to  our  best  natures,  difficulty  is  the  supreme  magnet.  In 
the  history  of  the  conquest  of  Peru  you  recall  that  incident  when 
Pizarro.  drawing  his  sword,  traced  a  lino  with  it  on  the  sand  from  east 
to  west.     Then  turning  towards  the  south,  "Friends  and  comrades,"  he 


400  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAXCE. 

said,  ''on  that  side  are  toil,  hunger,  nakedness,  the  drenching  storm,  de- 
sertion and  death:  on  this  side  ease  and  pleasure.  Choose  each  man 
what  best  becomes  a  brave  Castilian.  For  my  part,  I  go  to  the  south," 
So  saying  he  stepped  across  the  line.  Ah,  Christ 's  call  is  a  call  to  heroes. 
He  otfers  conflict  as  a  privilege.  He  offers  difficulty  as  a  blessing.  Are 
you  not  willing  to  traverse  the  bleak,  bare  mountainside  with  Him? 
With  a  finer  passion  still,  do  you  not  feel  what  the  Scotch  maiden  felt 
about  her  lover: 

The  Cairnie  mount  is  bleak  and  bare 

And  cauld  is  Clocknaben 
But  I'd  rather  be  wi'  Donald  there 

Than  be  fair  Scotland's  queen. 

Would  you  not  rather  be  in  Cairnie  mount  with  Christ  than  in  the  fairest 
of  earth's  gardens  Avithout  Him?  He  Himself  asks  you  that:  He  asks 
you  it  now.  ''What  though  Thy  form  we  cannot  see,  Ave  know  and  feel 
that  Thou  art  here."  Listen  to  His  question,  "Lovest  thou  me?"  Say 
to  Him  from  your  heart,  ' '  Lord  Thou  knowest  all  things :  Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee." 

Chairman:  I  have  now  very  great  pleasure  in  introducing  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Fikes,  of  Michigan,  a  man  who  has  been  greatly  owned  of  God  in 
evangelistic  work,  and  I  trust  as  the  result  of  his  appeal  through  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  there  will  be  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels 
of  God  over  many  sinners  repenting  and  coming  home. 

The  second  address  was  by 


Rev.  MAURICE  P.  FIKES,  D.  D. 

Mr.  Chairman :  Never  again  so  long  as  life  shall  last  through  all  the 
varied  experiences  of  mind  or  body  or  soul  shall  any  man  among  us  with 
red  blood  in  his  veins,  normal  grey  matter  in  his  head,  and  simple  faith 
in  his  heart,  ever  again  be  quite  the  same  after  these  memorable  meet- 
ings have  closed. 

I  recall  vividly  the  boyhood  vision  of  the  mountains  when  I  saw 
Storm  King  lift  liis  proud  head  but  a  few  hundred  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  swift-flowing  waters  of  the  Hudson.  But  later  on  standing  on  the 
fourteen  thousand  foot  summit  of  Pike's  Peak  the  Storm  King  was  for- 
gotten; and  then  solitary  and  isolated  and  sublimely  grand  Mount 
Shasta  rising  superbly  out  of  the  plains  with  her  frosty  summit  caught 
my  vision  and  I  forgot  Pike's  Peak  and  her  seventeen  sisters  in  Colo- 
rado. Then  Fuji  Yama, — and  who  that  has  ever  viewed  even  for  ten 
minutes,  as  I  did  those  matchless  summits  of  Fuji  Yama,  to  which  all 
Japanese  bow  their  heads  and  hearts,  can  forget  her.  But  it  was  in  In- 
dia when  from  Darjeeling  my  eyes  caught  a  vision  of  the  Himalayas, 
that  supreme  summit  of  mountains,  Mount  Everest,  rising  seventeen 
thousand  sheer  feet  from  the  level  of  the  sea, — and  the  rest  were  but 
foot-hills.     I  have  seen  the  mountains;  ne\er  again  can  altitudes  appeal 


Sunday,  June  25.]  R/:C01i'D  OF  I'ROCEEDINGS.  401 

to  me,  even  those  matchless  ranges  of  the  Selkirks,  with  tlieir  glistering, 
shimmering  glaciers.  I  have  seen  the  Himalayas.  All  of  God's  yester- 
days have  been  great  but  they  were  foot-hills  in  comparison  to  the  clus- 
ter of  summits  of  to-daj'. 

It  has  been  a  matchless  privilege  to  us  to  sit  in  these  brief  daj's  in  pa- 
triotic, prophetic,  apostolic  fellowship  of  men  like  Clifford  and  Meyer 
and  Shakespeare  and  Fetler  and  Besson.  Our  ears  have  heard  the  foot- 
fall of  the  march  of  the  King;  our  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  Lord.  Never  again  will  we  preach  the  same  sermons;  never 
again  will  we  live  the  same  lives;  never  again  will  we  be  the  same  citi- 
zens. We  have  reached  an  altitude  that  will  dwarf  into  insignificance 
all  the  antecedent  experiences  of  human  life.  The  other  day  when  the 
roll  was  called  and  we  heard  the  Moravian  moan,  the  Chinese  challenge, 
the  Pentecostal  proclamation  as  we  looked  into  the  battle-scarred  faces 
of  the  Siberian  exiles,  the  Bohemian  braves,  the  Hungarian  heroes  as 
they  appeared  one  by  one  on  this  platform  now  made  sacred  for  all  time 
and  eternity,  I  felt  the  hot  tears  trickling  down  my  cheeks,  for  in  the 
presence  of  such  devotion  to  the  Divine,  such  loyalty  to  love,  such  sim- 
plicity and  purity  of  faith,  I  kneAv  myself  unworthy  with  these  poor 
hands  even  to  unlatch  the  laces  of  their  shoes  and  I  cried  out,  "Oh, 
God,  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things'?"  Never  again  until  they  sing 
the  requiem  over  your  sleeping  mound  will  you  live  the  old  life  or  be 
the  old  man.    "God  has  spoken." 

There  came  wafting  o'er  the  seas. 

Borne  on  eastern  Europe's  breeze 
The  cry  of  Jesus'  oppressed  and  dying  hosts; 

They  have  fought  a  noble  fight 
Striving  hard  by  day  and  night 

To  unfurl  the  flag  of  freedom  from  their  coasts. 
Tramp,  tramp,  tramp  the  church  is  marching 

Onward  both  on  land  and  sea 
And  her  ranks  shall  never  rest 

Till  fi-om  everyone  oppressed 
Shall  be  heard  the  shout  of  victory,  we  are  free. 

Great  God,  the  secret  solution  to  the  mysteries  of  life  is  not  in  human 
devices  nor  political  schemes,  not  Alliances,  but  the  secret  is  in  the 
heart  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of  our  fathers.  In  my  own  perturbation  I 
sought  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  and  you  know  we  are  promised 
that  if  we  shall  seek  and  dwell  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High  we 
shall  abide — not  run  in  and  run  out,  not  just  making  a  visit — but  move 
in  and  establish  ourselves,  dwell  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty.  I 
remember  taking  my  little  girl  down  the  street  one  day  (you  will  par- 
don this  personal  reference)  and  I  forgot  she  was  with  me.  We  were 
looking  into  the  window  of  a  store  and  presently  I  was  reminded  that 
I  had  taken  her  out  for  a  walk  and  looked  up  and  down  the  street,  but 
26 


402  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

not  seeing  her  called  rather  loudly,  "Marian,  Marian,  where  are  you?" 
and  just  then  I  stepped  back  and  her  little  voice  said,  "Ouch,"  and  as  I 
turned,  there  stood  the  child  hanging  on  the  skirt  of  my  coat.  I  said, 
"What  are  you  doing?"  She  said,  "I  was  walking  in  your  shadow." 
As  long  as  my  child  sought  the  nearest  thing  to  me,  father  could  touch 
her  and  she  could  touch  him. 

Oh,  ye  children  of  God,  hie  yourselves  up  into  the  hills  and  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Almighty,  feel  the  touch  and  hear  the  soothing  cadences 
of  the  voice  which  is  as  the  music  of  many  waters  which  calms  the 
troubled  soul  and  inspires  and  defines  life.  Such  visions  as  we  have 
had.  0  men  and  women!  We  have  caught  a  new  vision  of  God.  God 
fills  his  world  as  he  never  did  to  our  conscience  before,  for  have  not  our 
eyes  seen  and  our  ears  heard  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  living 
men  and  women  undergoing  the  lash  and  the  scorpion  scourge  of  des- 
potism and  of  oppression?  God  is  not  sending  men  an3'where;  he  al- 
ways has  been  in  Kussia,  always  in  Siberia,  always  in  China;  he  calls 
men  to  him  and  when  they  go  they  find  God  there.  He  fills  his  world. 
We  have  been  blind  and  have  not  always  discovered  him  but  he  is  there 
just  as  Jesus  is  here  now  if  our  eyes  were  not  holden,  that  we  might  see 
him.  Do  you  remember  that  little  scene  on  the  Emmaus  Road,  when  the 
two  were  walking,  and  how  afterward  they  said:  "Did  not  our  hearts 
burn  within  us?"  When?  "When  we  walked  with  him  and  he  talked 
with  us  by  the  way  ? ' '  Listen !  You  can  never,  never  know  the  burn- 
ing heart  unless  you  talk  with  him,  and  you  will  never  talk  with  him 
unless  you  have  walked  with  him.  The  walk  and  the  talk  go  together. 
Oh,  Jesus,  put  thine  arm  in  ours  to-day  and  let  us  walk  and  talk;  then 
when  we  look  into  these  faces  scarred  with  suffering,  then  when  we  hear 
the  call  and  the  cry  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  then  in  our  helplessness  we 
shall  be  able  to  raise  our  heads  and  cry,  "I  am  able  through  him  to  do 
all  things."    We  have  a  new  vision  of  God's  wonderful  love. 

It  took  a  miracle  to  convince  old  Jewish  Peter  that  God's  love  extend- 
ed beyond  his  own  latitude  and  longitude;  a  sheet  had  to  be  let  down 
with  all  manner  of  creeping  things  in  it  before  he  would  believe  that 
God's  love  went  outside  of  Jewry.  We  have  learned  the  marvelous 
extent  of  God's  love, 

"Could  we  with  ink  the  ocean  fill 
Were  every  blade  of  grass  a  quill, 
Were  the  whole  world  a  parchment  made, 
And  every  man  a  scribe  by  trade, 
To  write  the  love  of  God  above 
Would  drain  the  ocean  dry, 
Nor  would  the  scroll  contain  the  whole 
If  stretched  from  sky  to  sky." 

The  height  and  depth  and  length  and  breadth  of  the  love  of  God 
baffles  even  Pauline  vocabulary.  We  have  caught  a  new  vision  of  our 


Siuiday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  403 

Lord;  never  again  will  we  think  of  him  hemispherieally.  Thank  God  his 
imperial  sceptre  has  touched  both  hemispheres,  all  continents  and  the 
islands  of  the  sea.  He  is  our  Universal  Lord  from  this  time  on.  Never 
again  will  we  think  of  the  Old  Book  as  we  have  before.  We  have  been 
disturbed,  disquieted,  made  fearful,  but  now  we  know,  we  know  it  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth  and  to  the  utter- 
most need  of  man.  Yes,  yes,  we  have  had  wonderful  visions.  How  are 
we  to  be  made  capable  of  entering  into  the  large  heritage  that  these 
visions  have  brought.  ''Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish" 
and  there  is  only  one  thing  worse  that  I  know,  and  that  is  where  the 
people  have  had  a  vision  and  failed  to  express  it.  Their  lives  are 
doomed  to  inevitable  deterioration  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man.  Woe 
be  unto  us  if  after  having  -seen  and  heard  we  fail  to  go  out  and  put  into 
practical  life  the  things  that  God  has  rolled  upon  our  consciousness  in 
these  solemai  sacred  hours.  "Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory."  Christ 
in  you,  co-partnership  with  the  Divine  Being,  laborers  together  not  only 
with  one  another  but  with  God  and  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit  and  there 
is  absolute  necessity  for  our  getting  back  to  the  feet  of  God. 

A  recent  writer  says :  ' '  There  are  four  men  in  every  man ' ' ;  first,  the 
man  the  world  sees,  the  external  man,  like  myself,  for  I  am  the  poorest 
thing  here  in  sight,  five  feet  four  inches,  saying  my  best  and  smiling  my 
suavest,  all  you  see  is  all  you  know,  thank  God.  But  up  in  Detroit  is  a 
woman  that  knows  another  man  that  lives  in  this  coat  of  mine;  when  I 
take  off  my  coat  and  put  my  feet  on  the  table  she  knows  another  man, 
a  different,  distinct  man;  he  may  be  better  or  worse,  but  another  man. 
There  is  another  man  locked  up  in  the  silent  secret  chambers  of  my 
own  being  as  there  is  in  yours.  I  know  that  there  is  not  a  being  on  the 
foot-stool  who  has  not  down  in  his  ?oul  something  locked  up  that  only 
the  judgment  day  will  bring  forth.  After  the  world  has  applauded  you, 
after  your  friends  have  congratulated  you,  when  you  have  turned  tlie  key 
upon  yourself  in  the  secret  sanctity  of  your  own  chamber  you  have  said, 
"Great  God,  if  the  world  knew  me,  if  my  wife  knew  me,  if  my  mother 
knew  me,  if  my  friends  knew  me  as  I  know  myself  they  would  despise 
the  very  ground  I  walk  on."  For  you  know  another  man;  he  may  be 
better,  he  may  be  worse,  but  "the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and 
desperately  wicked."  And  there  is  another  man,  and  that  is  the  man 
who  requires  neither  broadcloth  nor  rags,  for  God  sees  a  man's  naked 
soul  just  as  it  is  unclothed  before  his  discriminating  eye  of  fire.  He 
may  see  a  better  man  or  a  worse,  but  the  point  is  this :  God  knows  a  man 
that  you  never  can  know,  I  never  can  know,  only  God  knows. 

Now,  if  there  is  one  in  the  universe  that  knows  me  better  than  I  know 
myself,  can  you,  can  I,  direct  my  energy,  think  my  thought,  direct  my 
ambitions,  if  I  don't  hie  myself  into  his  secret  presence.  I  must  get 
alongside  of  the  only  mind,  the  only  will  that  is  superior;  I  must  get 
into  the  mountains  as  Moses  did.  You  remember  when  he  came  back 
his  face  was  shining.  One  man  went  this  direction  for  skins,  another 
for  cords,  another  to  map  out  a  parcel  of  land,  and  when  all  was  exe- 


404  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

euted  there  stood  the  completed  tabernacle.  Where  were  the  plans  and 
specifications?  In  the  mind  of  Moses.  Where  had  he  got  them?  Up 
in  the  mountain. 

God  has  a  plan  for  you  and  a  plan  for  me,  and  I  never  can  make 
the  most  of  myself  until  I  get  the  divine  plan  of  my  destiny,  and  I 
never  can  get  it  except  on  my  knees  before  him.  0  God,  in  this  sacred 
place,  unveil  to  us  the  secret  which  thou  hast  for  us  individually  and  all 
of  us  to-day.  God  has  already  the  very  spot  marked  in  the  geography  of 
this  universe,  where  the  eastern  college  is  to  be  placed.  God  has  the  very 
mountain-side  where  the  burning  bush  is  to  flame  forth  a  new  affection 
to  your  life  and  direct  your  destiny.  God  has  in  his  own  counsel  and 
in  the  secret  of  his  own  presence  that  which  will  make  or  break  your 
whole  life  and  career.  God  help  us  to  see  the-  necessity  for  getting  close 
to  the  divine  heart  if  we  would  achieve  the  divine  will.  We  have  re- 
versed the  divine  order.  We  lay  our  plans  and  organize  our  committees 
and  say,  **Now  it  is  good,"  and  after  we  have  given  due  deliberation,  we 
say,  ''It  is  very  good,"  and  then  we  open  a  season  of  prayer,  and  in  our 
season  of  prayer  we  say,  *'Now,  Lord  God  Almighty  thine  arm  is  not 
shortened;  thou  art  omnipotent,  omniscient,  thou  boldest  the  seas  in  the 
hollow  of  thine  hand;  now  God  come  down  and  work  our  plans.  And  it 
fails,  and  it  ought  to  fail.  Get  back  to  the  divine  order.  Pray,  get  your 
plan,  then  you  and  God  work  it  out. 

I  have  just  a  moment  left.  Supposing  you  good  Philadelphians  should 
say  if  it  should  happen  so  that  the  sun  shall  shine  again  to-morrow,  ''At 
twelve  o'clock,  when  he  is  at  the  zenith,  we  will  get  the  tallest  mountains 
in  sjDace  and  make  a  wall  around  our  city  and  imprison  the  sun,  and 
then  we  will  get  the  densest  storm  clouds  that  float  in  space  and  float 
them  around  the  city  and  have  a  monopoly  of  the  sunshine  and  the  sun 
heat  forever."  You  foolish  people;  how  long  do  you  suppose  you 
could  confine  the  sunshine?  In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  or  ever  I  could 
tell  it,  he  would  burst  your  rocky  barriers  and  transform  them  into  ala- 
baster pillars  and  your  clouds  into  fit  rivals  for  Revelation's  sea  of 
glass  mingled  with  splendid  fire.  You  cannot  hide  light  and  God  or  the 
Spirit  or  the  Sun  or  the  Trinity  in  mind  is  absolutely  invulnerable  and 
his  rising  though  in  a  dungeon  place  will  shine  out  from  a  Bedford  jail; 
and  though  a  Siberian  exile,  will  flame  in  an  American  city;  and  though 
lashed  and  mangled  and  hungry  shall  through  Kossuth  inflame  a  uni- 
verse; and  though,  like  Luther,  be  kept  amid  dusty  tomes  of  ancient 
stuff  shall  come  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  a  new  and  living  word.  Or,  as 
the  Scripture  puts  it  in  speaking  of  Gideon, — and  I  believe  we  may  thus 
translate  it, — "The  Lord  God  clothed  himself,"  put  on  a  garment, 
clothed  himself  with  Gideon. 

Oh,  Paul  Besson,  you  need  not  fear;  as  the  mountains  are  around 
about  Jerusalem  so  the  God  of  Elisha  that  surrounded  Dothan  will  be 
with  thee.  William  Fetler,  go  back  to  St.  Petersburg  and  the  God  of 
Sabbaoth  keep  thee  as  he  has  kept  his  own  through  this  circling  cycle  of 
time.     Christ  in  you  is  an  awful  thing.     They  bound  Jesus  and  led  him 


Suiulay,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  405 

away.  Oh,  how  could  it  be  that  he  who  fixed  the  stars  and  mountains 
and  waves  could  ever  permit  himself  to  be  bound.  But  they  bound  him 
and  led  him  away.  They  could  never  have  bound  him  had  it  not  been 
for  the  hell-born  traitorous  kiss  of  one  of  his  own,  Judas  Iscariot,  and 
the  echo  of  that  kiss  is  like  the  hissing  of  the  fire  through  eternity. 
Is  Christ  in  you,  liberated,  free,  a  light  to  shine  out,  or  is  Christ  in  you 
a  prisoner  in  chains,  held  down  in  your  unbelief,  imprisoned  by  your 
sin,  known  sin  harbored  in  your  life? 

Men  and  women,  I  command  you  in  the  name  of  God  take  off  the  chains 
and  let  my  Lord  go.  This  unbelief,  this  sin,  whatever  it  is,  take  it  out 
of  your  life  to-day,  and  know  by  his  presence  and  power  manifest  in 
these  meeting's  that  he  is  still  living,  loving,  saving  the  world  and  that 
he  is  in  you  to  save  the  lost. 

Hymn,   ''0  Happy  Day." 

Chairman  :  Most  of  you  who  reside  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  know 
well  Dr.  Broughton,  from  Georgia.  I  have  the  greatest  pleasure  in  in- 
troducing him  to  my  English  brethren.  We  have  heard  how  that  listen- 
ing to  the  call  of  God  he  devoted  himself  to  the  winning  of  souls.  His 
life  had  been  previously  devoted  to  the  most  Christian  of  all  profes- 
sions, that  of  healing  the  sick,  and  God  honored  his  choice  and  hun- 
dreds have  been  won  to  him,  and  I  believe  at  this  hour  a  place  is  being 
erected,  which  is  the  largest  Baptist  church  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  will  be  filled  with  worshippers.  May  God  grant  that  some  of  the 
droppings  of  the  showers  which  have  been  enjoyed  in  Georgia  may  fall 
upon  us. 

The  third  address  was  by 

Dr.  LEN  G.  BROUGHTON. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  friends :  I  feel  this  afternoon  as  if  I  could 
wish  that  somebody  else  might  close  this  very  important  hour, 
an  hour  that  I  regard  as  one  of  the  most  important,  if  not  the 
most  important,  of  all  this  session  of  this  Alliance,  an  Hour  devoted  to 
personal  consecration  to  God  our  Father.  As  I  come  to  speak  the  clos- 
ing message  of  this  afternoon's  session,  I  want  to  assure  you  first  of  all 
that  I  do  so  deeply  conscious  of  my  own  personal  unworthiness  to  speak 
upon  such  a  theme.  But  I  am  not  responsible  for  mj^  theme,  nor  a^i  I 
responsible  for  my  place,  and  I  shall  therefore  address  myself  as  best  I 
can  in  the  short  time  that  I  have,  for  I  am  not  a  short-time  talker  and 
never  could  make  a  short  speech,  it  takes  me  so  long  to  say  what  little  I 
have  to  say;  in  the  short  time  that  I  have  I  want  to  address  myself  as 
best  I  can  from  a  deep  sense  of  conviction  about  this  very  important 
matter. 

In  order  to  feel  perfectly'  at  home  I  want  to  have  a  text,  and  I  wish 
you  to  go  back  with  me  to  the  thirty-second  chapter  of  Exodus  and  the 
twenty-ninth  verse  for  my  text,  ''Consecrate  yourselves  this  day  unto 


406  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIAlSiCE. 

God  that  he  may  do  great  things  for  you  this  day."  And  in  order  that 
we  may  properly  appreciate  the  full  meaning  of  the  text  I  want  that  we 
shall  briefly  look  at  the  context,  for  a  text  is  ever  a  pretext  unless  we  see 
the  context,  and  it  is  certainly  true  here.  Moses  had  just  gone,  leaving 
the  Children  of  Israel  in  the  valley  that  he  might  upon  the  mountain- 
top  have  communion  with  God  and  get  for  the  people  over  whom  he  had 
been  chosen  to  preside  a  message;  and  while  there  in  communion  with 
God  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  as  well  as  for  himself,  the  people 
that  he  had  left  grew  restless  and  began  to  complain.  They  were  like 
many  a  church  that  I  know  to-day.  I  doubt  not  that  to-day  in  many  a 
church  throughout  this  country  and  across  the  seas  there  are  people 
who  are  complaining  because  their  pastors  and  leaders  are  off  at  Phila- 
delphia rather  than  at  home  attending  to  their  business.  And  so  these 
people  came  to  Aaron  who  occupied  with  respect  to  Moses  a  sort  of  posi- 
tion like  the  deacons  of  our  churches  to  the  pastor.  They  came  to  Aaron 
with  their  complaint  about  the  long  absence  of  Moses,  their  leader,  and 
they  wanted  Aaron  to  make  for  them  a  leader  who  would  remain  at 
home,  and  Aaron  joined  in  with  the  popular  cry  and  called  for  their  ear- 
rings and  other  golden  jewels  or  treasures  and  cast  the  whole  lot  into  the 
fire  and  made  for  them  a  golden  calf.  The  people  got  around  the  calf 
and  began  to  rejoice  and  worship;  they  had  music  and  dancing.  They 
now  had  a  leader  who  would  stay  at  home.  To  be  sure  he  was  a  pastor 
that  nobody  else  would  want;  he  was  a  calf  pastor,  but  he  would  stay 
at  home.    That  is  all  they  wanted. 

Moses  returned  from  the  mountain  and  heard  this  music,  and  saw 
this  dancing,  and  called  Aaron  to  him  and  asked  him  what  it  meant. 
Aaron  said,  ''The  people  wanted  it  so;  they  gave  me  their  golden  ear- 
rings, I  took  them  and  put  them  in  the  fire  and  there  came  out — ^just 
came  out — this  calf."  And  Moses  lost  his  temper,  I  should  say  found 
his  temper — I  think  a  righteous  temper  too — and  he  shouted  to  the  peo- 
ple, "Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side,  let  him  come  unto  me."  And  then  later 
on  he  said  unto  them  after  they  had  come  "consecrate  j'ourselves  this 
day  unto  the  Lord."  The  American  Revised  Version  in  the  margin 
translates  that  this  way,  "Fill  your  hands  full  this  day  unto  the  Lord." 

My  dear  brethren,  I  believe  that  this  is  the  supreme  message  for  the 
Church  of  Christ  the  world  over  to-day.  The  very  same  message  that 
Moses  spoke  to  the  Children  of  Israel  under  those  circumstances  is  the 
message  that  needs  to  ring  out  from  every  pulpit  to  every  pew  in  all  our 
churches  the  world  over.  Our  hands  are  full  of  everything  else  in  the 
world  but  spiritual  consecration  to  service  to  God.  Our  hands  are  full 
of  pleasure,  they  are  full  of  business,  they  are  full  of  machinery,  much 
of  it  church  machinery,  much  of  it  splendid  machinery,  but  oh,  there 
needs  to  be  the  filling  of  our  hands  for  personal  individual  service  to 
God.  And  this  consecration  that  was  enjoined  by  Moses  is  a  consecra- 
tion that  is  possible  for  every  man  here  to-day. 

But  in  desiring  to  enter  upon  and  enjoy  its  privileges  there  are  three 
things  that  we  must  keep  in  mind,  for  without  these  three  things  there 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  407 

is  no  such  thiiig'  as  full  consecration.  First:  a  cleansed  heart;  secondly, 
a  ready  hand;  thirdly,  a  resigned  will.  I  want  us  to  consider  these  three 
things  carefully  and  patiently,  and  I  trust  prayerfully,  and  then  I  want 
us  to  say  what  we  are  going  to  do  about  it,  and  God  help  us,  before  we 
leave  here  to-day  I  want  every  one  of  i;s  to  be  consecrated  men  and 
women. 

First,  a  cleansed  heart.  Tliere  is  no  personal  consecration  unless 
there  is  previously  a  cleansed  heart.  The  psalmist  said,  ''If  I  regard 
iniquity  in  my  heart  the  Lord  will  not  hear  me."  By  iniquity  he  meant 
sin,  it  is  simply  another  way  of  spelling  sin.  If  I  regard  iniquity  in 
my  heart,  if  I  hold  on  to  sin,  if  I  am  unwilling  to  let  it  go,  the  Lord's 
ears  will  be  shut  against  me,  and  if  the  Lord's  ears  are  shut  against  me 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  consecration. 

Some  time  ago  a  man  was  walking  down  the  streets  of  New  York  City 
on  a  very  hot  day  and  he  was  seen  to  stagger  and  then  to  fall.  Some 
men  gathered  about  him  and  they  thought  at  first  that  he  was  dead,  but 
as  they  got  down  close  over  his  face  they  found  that  he  was  yet  breath- 
ing, just  barely  breathing.  Soon  an  ambulance  was  there  with  some 
surgeons  who  had  come  from  the  hosiptal.  They  got  down  likewise  over 
him  and  they  found  there  was  yet  a  small  sign  of  life,  just  a  bit.  They 
tenderly  picked  that  man  up  and  put  him  in  the  ambulance  and  carried 
him  to  the  hospital.  When  they  got  him  to  the  hospital  they  called  in 
the  superior  surgeons  of  the  place  and  all  together  they  made  a  careful 
investigation  of  his  case.  The  result  was  a  diagnosis  and  the  diagnosis 
was  this:  the  man  has  some  kind  of  brain  tumor  that  is  pressing  upon 
certain  centers  of  his  brain  causing  this  general  state  of  paralysis  and 
the  only  help  we  can  offer  is  an  operation  upon  the  cranium,  dissecting 
out  the  tumor,  relieving  the  pressure  and  giving  the  man  a  chance  to  re- 
cover. The  family  was  consulted  and  finally  they  consented  and  the  op- 
eration was  perfoi-med,  one  of  the  most  scientific  and  successful  of  the 
kind  ever  performed  in  this  country  or  abroad.  When  the  skull  was 
opened  they  began  to  look  for  the  tumor  and  much  to  their  astonish- 
ment there  was  no  tumor  of  any  kind  in  sight.  They  began  then  a  pro- 
cess of  delicately  and  tenderly  and  skilfully  separating  the  tender  mem- 
branes of  the  brain  by  means  of  a  tiny  silver  probe,  feeling  about  in  the 
brain  most  carefully  not  to  wound  a  single  delicate  capillary  that  would 
set  up  hemorrhage  and  perhaps  cause  death,  until  finally  as  they  felt 
about  with  that  probe  in  that  way  they  came  upon  a  hard  substance. 
They  didn't  know  what  that  hard  substance  was  but  they  knew  that  it 
was  a  foreign  substance,  that  it  had  no  place  there,  so  they  divided  fur- 
ther these  membranes,  went  down  with  a  tiny  pair  of  forceps  into  the 
brain  mass,  clasped  the  little  thing  that  they  found  there  with  the  tiny 
forceps  and  pulled  it  out.  When  they  got  it  out  they  found  it  was  a 
spicular  bone,  not  much  larger  than  the  probe  that  discovered  it,  as  thin 
almost  as  tissue  paper.  It  had  shivered  off  from  the  inner  table  of  that 
man's  skull,  perhaps  when  he  was  a  child  as  the  result  of  a  sudden 
fall   or  bv   a   stroke   of   his   head    against    a   hard   substance;    in   some 


408  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

way  he  shivered  off  this  bit  of  bone  and  it  had  made  its  way  through 
the  years  down  into  the  brain  centres,  keeping  up  a  constant  irritation 
which  finally  resulted  in  congestion  and  general  paresis.  When  the  little 
spieular  bone  was  taken  out  the  wound  was  brought  together,  done  up 
aseptically  and  the  man  was  placed  in  bed  and  in  exactly  six  weeks'  time 
he  was  back  at  home  with  his  family  enjoying  perfect  health. 

I  don 't  tell  this,  this  afternoon  to  advertise  the  modern  triumphs  of  sur- 
gery with  which  I  am  personally  so  interested,  but  I  tell  it  that  I  may  by 
it  if  possible  communicate  to  you  my  own  heart's  feelings  first  about  the 
church.  That  man  paralyzed  upon  the  street  of  New  York  is  a  pic- 
ture,— shall  I  say  it  at  the  risk  of  being  called  a  pessimist, —  is  a  pic- 
ture of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  as  I  see  it  to-day  the  world  over. 
She  has  some  life  if  you  get  down  and  make  a  careful  analysis  of  her 
condition  and  her  faith  and  her  love.  You  will  see  that  she  has  some 
life,  but,  oh,  she  has  little  power.  She  is  practically  in  a  state  of  par- 
alysis. 

As  I  have  listened  this  week  to  the  various  phases  of  work  that  con- 
front the  Church  of  Christ  the  world  over  to-day  I  have  said  to  myself 
over  and  over  again,  how  powerless  we  are  under  present  conditions  to 
grapple  with  these  things,  how  few  of  us  in  our  churches  can  actually 
bring  things  to  pass  by  way  of  prayer,  how  few  of  us  have  any  prayer. 
How  few  of  us  know  anything  to-day  of  a  real  prayer-meeting.  Boast  as 
we  may  of  our  great  churches  and  our  great  schools  and  our  great 
colleges,  and  our  great  love  and  our  great  learning  and  our  great  con- 
gregations, how  few  of  us  actually  are  able  to-day  in  our  churches  to 
maintain  a  week-night  prayer-meeting.  We  have  lost  faith  in  prayer. 
And  what  is  the  matter?  As  I  see  it,  there  is  but  one  reason.  For  one 
reason  or  another  we  have  allowed  sin  to  deposit  itself  in  our  hearts. 
When  I  say  *'sin"  I  don't  necessarily  mean  flagrant  sin,  I  don't  mean 
outrageous  sin  and  crime,  unmentionable  sin,  in  an  audience  like  this.  I 
don't  think  that  of  the  church,  but  I  mean  sin,  I  mean  anything  that 
comes  between  one  and  his  God. 

Some  time  ago  a  woman  came  to  me  greatly  disturbed  about  the  loss 
of  power  in  prayer,  and  she  said,  "I  want  you  to  tell  me  if  you  can  what 
is  the  matter;  I  have  lost  power  to  pray."  And  I  said,  "My  sister,  I 
will  answer  your  question,  or  try  to,  by  asking  you  one."  She  said, 
''What  is  it?"  ''When  you  go  down  to  pray  does  anything  come  up?" 
She  said,  "Yes,"  and  then  she  started  to  tell  it  to  me,  and  I  said, 
"Don't  tell  it  to  me,  I  am  no  priest."  I  said,  "You  say  when  you  go 
down  to  pray  something  always  comes  up?"  "Yes."  "Now,"  said  I, 
"let  me  say  this  to  you,  when  that  comes  up  you  must  put  it  down  be- 
fore you  get  up,  or  else  you  need  never  get  up."  She  took  me  at  my 
word,  and  she  came  to  me  the  next  day  and  said,  "Pastor,  I  am  as  happy 
as  I  was  the  day  after  my  conversion,  I  have  come  back  to  the  place  of 
prayer."  I  said,  "How  did  you  get  there?"  She  said,  "I  took  you  at 
your  word;  and  that  thing  that  has  been  coming  up  when  I  got  down  to 
pray  I  put  down  last  night  before  I  got  up,  though  it  took  me  all  night 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS. 


409 


to  do  it,  and  the  moment  that  I  put  it  down,  that  moment  I  felt  that  I  had 
audience  with  God  and  had  power  in  prayer." 

Another  thing  I  want  to  say  is  this,  ''A  ready  hand."  I  want  here 
again  to  take  you  with  me  back  into  the  Scriptures,  and  we  are  standing 
by  the  grave-side  of  Lazarus;  there  is  Mary  and  Martha  and  a  few  in- 
terested Jews,  and  there  is  Jesus,  and  there  is  Lazarus  in  his  grave. 
Jesus  has  come  to  resurrect  this  dead  man,  but  as  he  comes  he  sees 
something  in  the  way ;  there  is  a  stone  that  lies  across  that  grave ;  Jesus 
could  remove  that  stone,  he  could  speak  a  word  and  it  would  be  done. 
It  was  far  easier  for  him  to  remove  the  stone  than  to  raise  the  dead  man, 
as  we  do  things.  But  there  was  something  there  that  Jesus  knew  they 
could  do,  and  until  they  had  gone  as  far  as  they  could  there  was  nothing 
for  him  to  do.  And  so  Jesus  said  to  them,  ''Roll  ye  away  the  stone." 
They  then  rolled  the  stone  away  and  Jesus  lifted  his  eyes  to  heaven  and 
prayed,  and  said,  ''Lazarus  come  forth,"  and  Lazarus  came  forth.  But 
there  was  yet  something  for  them  to  do.  When  Lazarus  came  forth 
he  was  bound  with  grave  clothes.  His  mouth  was  shut;  he  could  not 
talk  like  a  live  man ;  his  hands  were  tied ;  he  could  not  work  like  a  live 
man;  his  feet  were  tied;  he  could  not  walk  like  a  live  man;  and  Jesus 
said  to  these  interested  ones,  "Loose  him  and  let  him  go,"  and  they  did 
so  and  Lazarus  went  about  his  business. 

Now,  my  brethren,  here  is  another  weak  spot  in  the  life  and  work  of 
the  church  to-day;  we  are  depending  upon  God  to  do  things  that  we  can 
do  and  must  do  for  ourselves,  and  until  we  do  that  which  we  can  do,  we 
have  no  right  to  expect  God  to  do  that  Avhich  he  alone  can  do. 

May  I  tell  you  a  story  ?  Several  years  ago,  I  was  appointed  to  preach 
a  missionary  sermon  before  a  great  country  Baptist  Association.  There 
were  something  like  three  thousand  country  people  present,  and  we  had 
services  out  in  the  open  air,  and  it  was  arranged  by  the  manager  that  I 
should  take  a  collection  at  the  close  of  that  sermon  as  a  thank-offering 
for  missions,  and  the  moderator  of  the  association  was  a  preacher,  and 
he  was  a  rich  preacher,  and  like  most  rich  preachers  I  have  ever 
known,  he  was  an  exceedingly  stingy  one.  So  after  I  had  preached,  after 
I  poured  my  soul  out  in  that  message,  the  people  were  in  a  good  frame 
for  a  collection,  I  thought.  I  said,  "Now,  it  is  arranged  that  we  should 
take  a  thank  offering  to  God  and  the  money  is  to  be  given  to  foreign 
missions,"  and  just  at  that  time  the  old  moderator  jumped  upon  his 
feet  and  said,  "Brothers,  I  think  this  is  a  good  time  to  sing."  "Well, 
then,"  I  said,  "sing."  And  he  said,  "Let  us  sing  'From  Greenland's 
Icy  Mountains."'  Well,  it  was  all  out  of  place,  for  it  was  the  hot- 
test day  in  August  that  I  ever  felt  in  my  life,  and  he  struck  up  "From 
Greenland's  Icy  Mountains"  and  those  country  people  sang  it  from  their 
hearts,  for  they  sing  that  way.  When  they  came  to  that  verse,  "Waft, 
waft,  ye  winds  the  story,"  I  observed  that  this  old  moderator  had  his 
head  thrown  back  as  far  as  he  could,  and  shouted  that  as  loud  as  his 
voice  could  carry  it,  and  it  took  hold  of  me,  and  I  had  the  hymn  book  in 
my  hands  and  unconsciously  I  tore  tliat   liymn  out  of  tlial   hymn  book. 


410  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

I  declare  to  you  that  I  did  not  know  that  I  was  doing  so  rude  a  thing 
or  I  never  would  have  done  it;  and  I  began  working  at  it  like  that 
(tearing  paper)  until  I  tore  it  into  little  fragments,  and  then  threw  the 
fragments  at  my  feet,  and  I  have  no  doubt  I  got  on  them.  And  then 
when  they  were  through  the  hymn  I  felt  like  saying,  and  did  say  it,  ' '  My 
brethren,  God  Almighty's  winds  will  never  waft  the  gospel  ship  until 
God's  people  lift  the  sail.  Let  us  take  the  collection;  let  us  pay  the  sal- 
ary of  some  man  or  men  to  lift  the  sail  that  carries  the  gospel  to  nations 
that  have  it  not."  Then  the  collectors  started  and  I  fixed  my  eyes  on 
that  moderator,  I  just  could  not  help  it,  and  when  the  basket  came  to 
him  I  pledge  you  he  gave  the  enormous  sum  of  five  cents,  that  is  next 
to  the  smallest  piece  of  money  we  have,  and  I  felt  almost  certain  there 
was  a  hole  in  that  which  made  it  worthless. 

Oh,  my  brethren,  the  time  has  come  in  the  history  of  the  church,  cer- 
tainly in  this  country  of  ours,  that  we  have  got  to  learn  the  lesson  that 
consecration  is  not  the  experience  simply  into  which  one  passes,  that 
makes  him  see  and  feel  and  oft-times  say  silly  and  foolish  things,  but 
that  it  is  an  actual  experience,  that  it  is  a  transaction,  that  which  is 
joining  hands  with  God  and  working  with  God  in  the  great  world  of 
problems  which  to-day  are  so  big  as  to  stagger  us  when  we  look  at  them. 

Some  time  ago  a  woman  left  Sweden  for  this  country  to  marry.  Her 
lover  had  preceded  her  about  three  years.  He  had  made  money  enough 
to  send  for  her  and  he  was  to  meet  her  in  New  York  and  take  her  to 
his  far  Western  home.  .When  she  started  from  Sweden  she  thought  it 
would  be  well  for  her  if  she  stopped  in  London  and  learned  a  bit  of 
English  before  she  came,  and  so  she  stopped  at  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  of  London  and  studied  for  six  months;  then  she 
came  upon  her  glad  mission  and  when  she  landed  in  New  York  she 
was  surprised  to  find  that  he  was  not  there  but  there  was  a  letter  from 
him  with  sufficient  funds  and  directions  as  to  how  to  go  to  meet  him  in 
his  home  city.  He  said  in  that  letter  that  he  was  ill,  and  bis  doctors 
would  not  let  him  come  so  far.  She  hastened  on  across  the  continent 
until  she  landed  in  that  great  Western  city.  When  she  got  there  she 
was  still  more  surprised  not  to  see  him  at  the  station.  She  went  to  the 
first  hotel  and  there  at  the  hotel  she  learned  after  considerable  waiting 
that  he  had  died  only  a  few  days  before  and  was  then  buried.  There 
she  was  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  with  no  friends  and  no  money.  It 
was  soon  noised  about  the  hotel  that  such  a  woman  Avas  there,  and  a 
beautiful,  attractive,  winsome  woman  she  was,  and  a  man, — I  should 
not  say  a  man,  but  one  who  called  himself  a  man, — took  advantage  of  it 
and  pretended  to  be  her  friend,  pretended  he  was  taking  her  to  his  home 
when  he  was  taking  her  to  a  prison.  And  when  she  found  herself  incar- 
cerated, for  that  is  what  it  meant,  in  that  prison,  she  began  to  wring 
her  hands  and  to  cry  and  to  pray.  They  refused  to  allow  her  to  com- 
municate with  the  outside  world.  She  could  not  get  a  policeman;  she 
could  not  get  anybody;  finally  by  a  ruse  she  managed  to  get  to  a  tele- 
phone  and   she   looked   rapidly  over  the   telephone  record   and   got   the 


Sunday,  June  25.]  KECOIW  OF  I'liOCEEDlNGS.  411 

name  of  a  minister  and  she  called  him  and  said,  "Please  come  here  at 
once,"  and  he  went.  When  he  got  there  he  I'ound  her  and  they  allowed 
him  to  talk  to  her  a  while  in  the  parlor.  There  alone  together  she  told 
him  her  sad  story  and  she  began  to  beg  ior  helja  and  he  dropped  down  on 
his  knees  by  her  side  and  said  to  her,  ''Let  us  pray."  She  sprung  to 
her  feet  and  though  she  was  a  Christian  woman  she  said,  "It  is  not  time 
for  praying;  I  want  a  friend." 

My  brethren,  just  that  same  cry  we  hear  from  all  walks  of  life  to-day 
the  world  over;  the  world  to-day  wants  a  friend.  God, — let  me  say  it 
reverently, — wants  a  friend;  there  is  time  for  prayer,  there  is  time  for 
work,  for  sweat  of  blood,  and  never  let  us  forget  that  alongside  of  our 
cleansed  hearts  must  come  the  filling  of  our  empty  hands.  Service  is  as 
essential  as  sanctifieation. 

Then  my  last  word  is,  "A  resigned  spirit."  Again  we  come  back  to 
the  Scriptures  and  we  find  ourselves  now  wholly  with  Jesus  and  with 
Jesus  alone  and  we  are  there  with  him  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane 
where  he  fought  out  tlie  hardest  fight  that  he  ever  fought  in  his  life. 
There  with  him  on  the  cold  ground,  we  kneel  and  hear  him  pray  and  I 
want  you  to  listen  for  a  moment  to  that  prayer.  Here  it  is:  "Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  and  then  it  seems  that  he 
hesitates  for  a  moment  and  then  he  comes  back,  "Father,  if  it  be  pos- 
sible let  this  cup  pass  from  me;  nevertheless,  nevertheless,  not  my  will, 
but  thine  be  done."  And  from  that  moment  Jesus  arises  and  marches 
steadily  to  the  cross.  My  dear  brethren  it  is  easy  for  us— I  will  speak  of 
myself — it  is  easy  for  me  to  follow  Jesus  in  almost  every  step  in  his  life 
to  that  point.  I  am  talking  to  you  out  of  my  own  heart  when  I  say  to 
you  that  that  is  the  hardest  thing  that  I  have  to  do.  I  speak  what  I  feel. 
It  is  easy  for  me  to  follow  Jesus  by  the  work-bench  and  to  draw  the 
jack  plane  with  him,  for  I  have  done  that.  It  is  easy  for  me  to  follow 
Jesus  in  the  baptism ;  it  is  easy.  It  is  easy  for  me  to  follow  Jesus  some- 
times upon  the  Mount  of  Temptation,— most  temptation.  It  is  easy 
for  me  to  follow  Jesus  in  his  life  of  ministry  to  the  sick  and  to  the  poor 
and  to  the  needy  and  to  the  suffering.  It  is  easy  for  me  to  follow  Jesus 
with  his  enemies,  and  to  stand  right  up  by  his  side  when  they  persecute 
him.  I  love  to  be  there.  I  love  to  speak  a  word  for  Mm.  I  love  to  take 
some  of  the  blows  on  my  shoulders  that  they  aim  at  him,  for  he  has 
done  so  much  for  me.  I  like  that.  Sometimes  I  think  it  would  be  easy 
for  me  to  follow  him  to  the  cross  and  die  with  him.  I  believe  there  are 
hundreds  of  men  and  women  in  his  presence  to-day  that  would  be  pex-- 
fectly  willing  to  die  for  their  faith.  The  day  of  martyrs  is  not  past.  We 
would  have  them  to-day,  an  innumerable  company  of  them,  if  conditions 
were  as  they  once  were.  Men  are  still  true  to  their  convictions.  But, 
oh,  my  dear  brethren,  how  I  would  like  sometimes  under  some  circum- 
stances to  pass  by  Gethsemane  and  leave  it  alone. 

There  are  my  ways;  there  are  my  scliemes  that  I  have  worked  out  and 
thought  over  and  prayed  over,  and  in  wliich  T  have  put  my  very  best  life, 
and  I  am  afraid  sometimes  he  would  like  to  break  them  up  and  I  hesi- 


412  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

tate,  but  God  helping  me  to-day — this  came  over  me  in  a  very  peculiar 
sense  as  I  prayed  this  morning  about  this  meeting  this  afternoon — 
God  helping  me  I  will  walk  in  through  Gethsemane's  gate  with  Jesus. 
I  will  go  with  him  down  beneath  the  olive  trees  upon  the  cold,  crisp 
earth,  I  will  prostrate  myself  upon  the  ground  with  him;  I  will  try  to 
pray  like  him,  "Lord,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,  this 
cup  of  changed  plans  and  changed  conceptions  of  things,  but  neverthe- 
less not  my  will  but  thine  be  done."  God  knows  that  is  where  I  want 
to  get  and  that  is  where  I  want  to  stay. 

Just  this  one  word  before  I  sit  down  I  want  to  say  as  to  the  result  that 
would  follow  with  such  a  love  the  world  over.  My  brethren,  if  we  could 
come  to  that  point,  all  of  us,  I  tell  you  what  would  result.  I  cannot  tell 
you  all  that  would  result  but  I  will  tell  you  one  thing  that  would  result 
and  that  one  thing  is  perhaps  the  most  needed  thing  now  in  the  life  of 
our  church,  and  that  is  a  perpetual  revival.  It  is  just  as  impossible  for 
sinners  to  come  in  and  remain  in  an  atmosphere  of  full  consecration  and 
go  out  unsaved  as  it  is  impossible  to-day  for  them  to  get  saved  in  the  at- 
mosphere that  many  of  us  furnish. 

I  have  a  friend,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  who  became  thoroughly 
aroused  concerning  the  worldliness  of  his  church  and  their  lack  of  soul- 
winning  power.  He  called  his  elders  together  one  Monday  night;  there 
were  twenty-four  of  them,  and  he  began  to  pour  out  his  heart  to  those 
men  about  the  worldliness  of  that  church,  and  finallj^  he  said  to  them, 
"Brethren,  I  want  to  ask  you, — I  don't  care  to  go  into  any  secret  of 
your  life  that  you  don't  want  to  have  told, — but  I  want  to  ask  you  one 
after  another,  'Have  you  eve;:  led  a  soul  directly  to  Christ  yourself 
since  you  have  been  an  elder  of  this  church?'  "  And  one  after  another 
they  said,  "No."  "Now,"  he  said,  "will  you  not  bow  here  on  your 
faces  with  me.  This  thing  has  come  over  me  in  such  a  way  that  I  cannot 
remain  the  pastor  of  this  church  under  present  conditions."  They  said, 
"Oh,  pastor,  we  are  giving  more  to  the  missions,  we  are  giving  more  to 
education,  we  are  giving  more  to  current  expenses,  we  are  doing  more 
in  every  benevolent  way  than  ever  in  the  history  of  this  church ;  we  have 
great  congregations,"  and  the  like.  He  said,  "Please  don't  say  any 
more,  men;  you  have  flattered  me  with  that  until  you  have  caused  me  to 
live  a  barren  life.  On  my  face  to-night  I  am  going  to  God  and  confess 
my  sin,  and  I  am  going  to  renew  my  consecration  to  God,  and  I  want  each 
one  of  you  to  do  it,  and  in  your  doing  I  want  you  to  pledge  me  that  you 
will  go  out  fresh  from  this  meeting  to  your  places  of  business  to-morrow 
and  begin  to  lead  men  then  and  there  to  confess  Christ  as  their  Saviour 
and  bring  them  with  you  to  the  church  for  membership."  One  after  an- 
other they  came  down  with  him  quietly  and  slowly,  but  determinedly. 
Then  they  began  one  after  another  to  confess  their  sins  of  indifference 
and  of  worldliness  and  the  like  and  then  to  renew  their  covenant  vows 
of  faithfulness  to  God.  Then  they  went  up  each  praying  for  the  other 
that  God  would  send  him  by  his  Holy  Spirit  the  next  day  some  man  to 
win,  and  thev  went  out. 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  413 

The  senior  elder  went  to  his  place  of  business  the  next  morning  and 
the  first  man  he  met  was  his  book-keeper  and  he  shut  the  door  and  he 
called  him  in  and  his  face  was  radiant,  this  elder  had  had  a  new  vision; 
he  had  caught  a  new  touch  of  God  and  he  said  to  him,  "Robert,  hoAv  long 
have  you  worked  for  me?"  He  said,  "Fifteen  years."  "You  are  not 
a  Christian  ?  "  "  No,  I  am  not  a  Christian ;  I  go  to  your  church,  but  I  am 
not  a  Christian."  "Well,  I  want  you  right  here  and  now  to  get  down 
and  humbly  give  your  heart  to  Christ."  He  did  it  and  then  this  book- 
keeper said,  "Let  us  go  out  here  and  find  the  assistant  cashier  of  this 
office,  he  is  not  a  Christian."  They  led  seven  men  to  Christ  that  day. 
What  was  going  on  in  that  man's  place  of  business  was  going  on  all  over 
the  city,  and  the  next  Sunday  morning  there  were  thirty-seven  business 
men  before  that  session  asking  for  membership  in  the  church,  who  had 
been  won  not  by  the  preaching  of  the  preacher  but  by  the  work  of  the 
members  of  the  church. 

Oh,  my  brethren,  from  one  side  of  this  country  to  another  let  me  say 
we  have  depended  upon  peripatetic  occasional  evangelists  to  come  into 
our  churches  and  save  our  lost  people  too  long.  They  have  their  place, 
but  as  God  is  my  witness  I  believe  to-day  that  we  are  suffering  from 
that  kind  of  dependence.  What  we  want  to-day  is  to  instil  into  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  the  members  of  our  chv;rches  the  fact  that  they 
can  win  this  world  to  Christ.  Our  work  as  preachers  is  largely  the 
work  of  the  general  atmospheric  saturation  with  the  truth  of  God.  Your 
business  as  laymen  in  the  church  is  to  take  the  truth,  focus  it  in  your 
individual  neighborhoods  among  your  associates  and  get  them  then  and 
there  to  surrender  to  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  talked  world  problems 
here,  we  have  thought  world  thoughts  here,  we  have  got  world  visions 
here,  but  unless  we  are  careful  we  will  forget  to  do  honestly  our  little 
piece  of  work  that  lies  right  around  our  church  door.  When  we  go 
back  to  our  homes  let  the  first  fruit  of  this  meeting  be  a  revival  in  our 
churches,  men  won  to  Christ  by  the  Spirit  that  has  been  engendered  by 
this  mountain-peak  of  spiritual  experience  that  we  have  had  in  Phila- 
delphia. 

After  a  moment  of  silent  prayer  the  audience  sang  the  Doxology  and 
the  benediction  was  pronounced  by  the  chairman. 


CLOSING  SESSION. 

Sunday  EvQuing,  June  25,  1911. 
Session  opened  at  7.45  with  President  John  Clifford  in  the  chair. 
Hymn,  "My  Hope  is  Built  on  Nothing  Less." 

In  the  absence  of  Dr.  H.  A.  Porter  the  devotional  exercises  were  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  F.  C.  McConnell,  who  read  the  Scripture  and  led  in  prayer. 
Hymn,  "From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains." 


414  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Mr.  Shakespeare  presented  the  following  report  of  the  Executive 
Committee  on  the  subject  of  Christian  Unity ; 

The  Executive  Committee  having  received  a  request  to  appoint  dele- 
gates to  a  conference  of  the  churches  on  Christian  Unity,  recommend 
that  a  reply  be  sent  to  the  following  effect : 

"That  while  the  members  of  the  AUianee  earnestly  desire  to  pro- 
mote the  spirit  of  unity  and  love  among  the  churches,  they  believe  that 
this  will  be  best  hastened  throughout  the  Baptist  world  by  communica- 
tion on  this  subject  being  sent  direct  to  each  of  the  unions  constituting 
the  Alliance." 

The  adoption  of  this  report  was  moved  by  Mr.  Shakespeare  and  was 
seconded  and  carried. 


ADDRESS  OF  PRESIDING  OFFICER. 

By  JOHN  CLIFFORD,  D.  D. 

The  Subject  for  this  evening  is  ''The  Baptists  and  the  Coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  In  Non-Christian  Lands,  In  Europe,  In  America. ' '  No 
more  fitting,  no  more  important  theme  could  possibly  engage  our  atten- 
tion at  this  our  last  gathering  in  connection  with  the  meetings  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance  in  1911. 

I  have  to  speak  for  ten  minutes  on  a  theme  that  is  alone  without  lim- 
its and  is  of  the  most  absorbing  interest. 

I.  Matthew  tells  us  that  John  the  Baptist  came  preaching  in  the  wil- 
derness of  Judea  saying,  ''Repent  ye  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."  We  are  preaching  the  same  good  news  still  and  have  been 
preaching  it  all  along.  It  is  a  living  part  of  our  message  to  the  genera- 
tions of  men.  It  is  implied  in  our  individualness.  It  unfolds  itself  in 
our  conception  of  the  incomputable  value  of  the  soul  of  man,  redeemed 
by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  and  enriched  by  the  all  sufficing  grace  of  God. 
Every  true  Baptist  proclaims  the  kingdom  come,  and  coming,  and  com- 
ing in  greater  fulness  into  the  whole,  and  into  every  part,  of  the  life  of 
man. 

II.  But  Mark  asserts  that  when  Jesus  began  His  work  He  said,  "The 
time  has  fully  come — the  kingdom  is  close  at  hand."  Repent  and  be- 
lieve are  good  news.  Then  He  bade  His  disciples  preach  and  tell  men 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  now  at  your  doors.  They  might  not  know  it  but  it 
was  there:  for  He  was  there;  they  might  ignore  it;  but  it  was  there — 
they  might  refuse  to  welcome  it,  but  it  was  there.  It  has  come.  We 
assert  that  it  is  here  now.  God  in  His  grace  is  ruling  the  souls  He  has 
redeemed.  He  is  their  Sovereign  in  Christ  Jesus  His  Son;  the  accepted 
Lord  of  their  thought  and  leader  of  their  action,  the  one  unchallengable 
King  in  the  home  and  in  the  school,  in  the  village  and  in  the  city,  in  the 
nation  and  in  and  over  humanity. 

ni.  We  discriminate  between  the  Church  of  Christ  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  The  Church  is  not  the  whole  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  the  primary 
example  of  it.  The  concrete  evidence  of  its  presence  and  the  most  im- 
portant instrument  and  organ  for  making  the  kingdom  universal.     Jesus 


.Suiulay,  -luiio  25. \  liEVOnJ)  OF  I'ROVIJJJDINGS.  415 

it  is  admitted,  says  very  little  about  the  Church,  and  much  about  the 
Ivingdom;  but  in  the  training  oi  the  Twelve,  in  sending  His  disciples  two 
by  two  upon  their  ministry,  and  in  uniting  His  ioUowers  with  Himself 
in  a  new  social  order  charged  with  new  ideas,  a  new  spirit,  a  new  pas- 
sion and  a  new  goal,  based  on  entirely  spiritual  relations,  not  on  culture 
or  color,  and  of  which  He  is  at  once  the  inspiring  and  illuminating  life 
and  the  Exclusive  Head.  He  continues  Jrom  age  to  age  the  most  sa- 
cred and  effective  agency  for  the  bringing  in  of  the  Kingdom  in  all  its 
fulness  and  power. 

In  each  true  church  He  I'ules :  His  ideas  are  its  principles.  His  spirit 
of  love,  forgivinguess,  self-sacrifice  and  brotherhood  pervades  its  mem- 
bers, and  its  continuous  missionary  work  is  the  chief  means  of  that  king- 
dom's advance. 

IV.  Need  I  say  that  some  churches  oppose  the  kingdom  and  are 
stumbling  stones  in  their  efforts  to  reach  the  true  goal  of  the  society  of 
Jesus?  You  know  it.  That  ideal  commonwealth  is  based  on  righteous- 
ness and  love;  and  it  must  have  liberty  and  equality,  opportunity  and 
justice  between  man  and  man  and  between  man  and  woman  and  between 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  order  to  become  a  genuine  republic  of  God. 
But  the  Church  of  Home  has  opposed  and  does  oppose  these  factors  of 
universal  well-being  in  Italy  and  Spain,  in  Portugal  and  Austria;  and 
wherever  it  is  permitted  to  do  it.  Therefore  for  the  sake  of  the  Bangdom 
of  God  we  are  compelled  to  separate  from  it  and  oppose  it. 

And  the  kingdom  has  come  by  that  Protestantism  which  gave  increas- 
ed vitality  to  all  the  intellectual,  spiritual,  and  ethical  elements  in  Chris- 
tianity. The  kingdom  came  in  the  three  great  movements  which  make 
our  modern  world:  (1)  the  Renaissance  with  its  revival  of  literature  and 
discovery  of  the  Greek  New  Testament  was  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
in  the  intellect  and  imagination  of  men.  (2)  The  Reformation  was  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  in  the  spiritual  life  of  man,  and  (3)  the  Revolui 
tion  was  the  coming  of  the  same  kingdom  in  the  social  and  civic  and  po- 
litical life  of  the  world,  and  these  three  are  successive  and  interdependent 
stages  in  the  one  advance  of  the  living  God  into  and  over  the  life  of 
mankind. 

The  kingdom  is  coming  still !  I  see  it  in  the  wider  sway  of  conscience, 
in  the  freer  course  for  justice,  in  the  unlocking  of  the  gates  of  oppor- 
tunity— in  the  quickened  sense  of  sin  obtaining  throughout  the  world,  in 
the  diffusion  of  brotherhood,  in  the  gradual  obliteration  of  race  distinc- 
tion and  the  extinction  of  prejudices  based  on  racial  descent  and  geo- 
graphical location,  in  the  cleaning  of  cities  and  healthier  conditions  of 
living,  and  in  the  deep  yearning  for  universal  peace. 

V.  It  comes  in  many  ways.  It  is  coming  by  the  church  that  like 
ours  makes  it  its  supreme  business  to  be  true  to  the  Son  of  Man;  by  the 
missionary  as  he  meets  the  competitive  spirit  of  commercialism,  the  gold- 
hunting  spirit  with  the  altruism  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  and  saturates 
trade  with  the  impulses  and  enthusiasms  of  the  gospel.  It  is  coming  by 
science  as  it  forces  us  into  the  presence  of  fact,  compels  us  to  study  it. 
to  know  what  it  means  and  to  be  absolutely,  even  remorselessly,  faithful 
to  its  teaching.  It  is  coming  through  the  philosophy  of  William  James 
and  Professor  Encken.  who  demonstrate  to  us  the  scientific  character  of 
conversion  and  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  man.  It  is 
coming  through  the  schools  and  colleges  training  men  to  think  for  them- 
selves and  drilling  them   for  the  work  of  life.     It  is  coming  through 


416  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

art  and  literature  which  more  and  more  are  exercising  their  rightful 
influence  in  the  ethical  leadership  of  mankind.  It  is  coming  through  the 
action  of  legislators  like  President  Taft  with  his  proposals  for  peace  and 
Lloyd-George  with  his  schemes  of  public  aid  for  the  invalid  workman, 
and  Australian  leaders  with  their  wages  boards  for  women.  It  is  com- 
ing in  the  deep  yearning  of  the  churches  for  unity,  begotten  of  our  fuller 
knowledge  of  one  another  and  of  our  readiness  to  enter  through  the  doors 
that  God  is  opening  into  a  wider  fellowship  of  mankind. 

Friends,  let  us  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad.  The  Kingdom  of  our 
God  is  within  us.  Christ  is  leading.  Already  He,  the  crucified  of  Cal- 
vary, is  crowned  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords.  Hail  Him  as  your 
King.  Meet  with  the  broadest  sympathy  all  efforts  that  alleviate  misery, 
that  purify  life,  that  uplift  the  world.  Preach  the  whole  gos- 
pel,— the  gospel  for  an  individual  and  the  gospel  for  a  regenerated 
social  order.  And  ever  be  sure  of  this  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  come 
nigh  to  us.  It  is  the  one  supreme  and  enduring  reality.  Never  doubt 
that. 

(Applause.) 

Dr.  Prestridge  announced  the  following  as  the  Committee  on  Unoc- 
cupied Mission  Fields : 

Rev.  J.  W.  Ewing,  chairman;  Messrs.  Wilkin,  Brooks,  Morris,  Carter, 
C.  E.  Wilson,  and  T.  B.  Ray. 

Dr.  John  Humpstone,  of  New  York,  delivered  an  address  on  the 
' '  Coming  of  the  Kingdom  in  Non-Christian  Lands. ' '  * 

Chairman  :  Now,  we  are  to  be  taken  to  Europe  and  look  at  ' '  Baptists 
and  the  Coming  of  the  Kingdom  in  Europe,"  which  subject  will  be  pre- 
sented by  my  friend,  Mr.  Ewing,  of  London. 


BAPTISTS  AND  THE  COMING    OF  THE  KINGDOM— IN  EUROPE. 

By  Rev.  JOHN  W.  EWING. 

As  we  take  our  stand  upon  the  watch  tower  of  Europe,  and  look  out 
over  the  people  of  many  classic  lands,  we  seem  to  hear  the  cry,  "Watch- 
man, what  of  the  night?"  and  the  answer,  "The  morning  cometh."  It 
is  an  hour  charged  with  indefinable  significance,  an  hour  when  myriads 
are  waking  from  the  sleep  of  ages  and  are  turning  towards  the  dawn- 
light  of  a  new  day.  Surely  a  breath  from  God  is  passing  over  the  na- 
tions, quickening  vast  populations  with  an  unknown  life,  and  kindling 
forces  which  will  shape  another  era.  Everywhere  is  there  a  new  impa- 
tience with  tyranny,  whether  civil  or  ecclesiastical;  everywhere  a  dis- 
content with  the  mere  forms  of  religion  and  the  formulae  of  creeds; 
everywhere  a  longing  for  some  deeper  and  Divine  experience,  something 
which  may  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  starving  soul,  may  enlarge  the  hori- 

*The  committee  was  unable  to  secure   the  manuscript  of  his  address  and  hence 
it  does  not  appear. — [Editor.] 


Suiitlay,  Jiiiu'  25. J  lUX'ORhOF  PROCEEDIlSlOS.  417 

zoii  of  tliouiilit,  and  I)riii^'  life  into  contact  with  its  Maker.  Tliere  is  a 
great  cry  abroad,  sometimes  articulate  in  looks  or  speech,  sometimes  ex- 
pressed only  in  a  wistlul  glance  or  a  broken  tone;  it  is  the  cry  of  the 
spirit  of  man,  amid  all  the  superficialities  and  shams  of  the  hour,  for 
reality,  for  rigliteousuess,  for  God.  Never  has  the  exterior  of  life  been 
more  brilliant,  never  civilization  more  advanced,  never  science  more 
triumphant,  and  never  men  more  conscious  that,  with  it  all,  ' '  Some- 
thing"— and  that  the  great  thing — "is  wanting." 

This  spirit  of  unrest  and  desire  shows  itself  in  lands  most  diverse, 
both  in  government,  in  faith,  and  in  degree  of  culture.  It  is  found 
acutely  in  lands  long  under  the  shadow  of  the  Vatican — in  the  kingdoms 
of  Italy  and  Spain,  the  Empire  of  Austria,  the  new  Republic  of  Portu- 
gal, and  the  older  French  Republic,  standing  at  the  crossways  between 
Rome  and  materialism. 

A  portion  of  last  summer  was  spent  by  me  in  Spain,  the  land  of  the 
Inquisition,  where  for  centuries,  Rome  reigned  unchallenged.  I  found 
myself  in  the  midst  of  a  national  ferment ;  the  leaven  of  a  new  indepen- 
dence working  in  Spanish  society,  and  the  working  men  in  tens  of  thou- 
sands turning  away  from  the  Romish  i^riesthood  and  all  its  works.  Upon 
a  lovely  mountain  near  Barcelona  I  watched  a  group  of  workmen  one 
evening  returning  dusty  from  their  day's  toil:  their  glance  fell  upon  a 
little  party  of  black-robed  priests  making  their  way  by  a  lower  path. 
One  of  the  workmen  pointed  at  the  priests,  and  his  comrades  gazed  upon 
them  as  though  they  were  a  blot  on  the  landscape.  No  word  was  spoken, 
but  the  look  made  one  tremble — the  contempt  of  an  awakening  prole- 
tariat for  what  it  knew  of  the  ministry  of  Christ.  On  a  Sunday  morning 
I  attended  service  at  the  Roman  Catholic  chapel  on  the  mountain,  and 
there  I  found  the  secret  of  the  position  laid  bare.  The  chapel  was 
crowded  with  wistful  seekers,  mostly  women.  The  service  was  ornate 
but  mechanical,  and  before  its  close  a  printed  litany  was  handed  round, 
a  litany  confessing  national  sins.  What  were  these  sins?  Some  of  them 
were  such  as  we  all  deplore — intemperance,  impurity,  the  greed  of  gold. 
But  then  came  a  prayer  which  threw  a  lurid  light  on  Rome's  whole  atti- 
tude— ''For  the  freedom  of  worship,  for  the  license  of  the  jiress,  and  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  0  God  have  mercy  upon  us."  In  that  one  petition 
I  saw  the  yawning  of  the  chasm  between  the  old,  hard  persecuting  Pap- 
acy', and  the  spirit  of  the  living,  thinking,  troubled  yet  aspiring  genera- 
tion in  which  we  live.  But  the  pity  of  it  is  that  vast  masses  in  these 
erstwhile  Catholic  lands  tliink  that  in  rejecting  Rome  they  must  reject 
Christ — that  in  vindicating  freedom  they  must  have  done  with  religion. 

In  France  this  idea  now  governs  the  system  of  national  education.  In 
that  country  two  young  women  lately  came  to  one  of  our  pastors,  having 
grown  up  under  the  atheistic  system  of  public  instruction,  without  ever 
hearing  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  were  simply  pagan,  but  when 
the  Saviour  was  presented  to  them  they  joyfully  accepted  Him.  The 
Papal  lands  are  as  fields  white  unto  harvest. 

But  in  the  east  of  Europe  stands  a  group  of  nations,  separate  from 
Rome,  yet  with  no  clearer  light.  In  Greece,  in  a  portion  of  the  Balkan 
region,  and  above  all  in  colossal  Russia,  we  see  multitudes,  under  the 
sway  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  who  in  spiritual  tilings  "cannot  dis- 
cern between  their  right  hand  and  their  left  hand."  Russia  is  essenti- 
ally a  religious  nation.     "Holy  Russia"  hev  sons  lovingly  call  her.     In 

27 


418  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

every  direction  rise  the  glittering  domes  of  churches;  in  every  house  is 
set  the  sacred  picture  with  its  little  lamp  burning  before  it.  But  Ortho- 
doxy has  grown  barren  and  worship  a  form.  The  people  go  through 
their  prostrations  and  prayers,  and  turn  back  to  the  toil  of  life  with 
hearts  still  athirst.  The  Saviour  is  hidden  behind  the  ikon,  and  the 
masses,  at  least  cannot  find  Him.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  day  when  I 
stood  in  the  Cathedral  of  Kozan  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  watched  the  peo- 
ple coming  to  the  famous  ikon  of  "Our  Lady  of  Kozan" — now  an  army 
officer,  breast  covered  with  medals :  next  an  old  grey-haired  moujik,  long- 
coated  and  high-booted :  then  a  richly-dressed  lady  of  society,  or  some 
poor  woman  with  her  babes — kissing  the  picture,  kneeling  before  it,  gaz- 
ing upon  it  with  eyes  that  spoke  of  souls  seeking,  seeking !  Nor  can  I 
forget  the  scene  in  the  monastery  Chapel  of  Alexander  Nevsky — the  pil- 
grim from  the  south,  travel-stained  and  weary  from  the  long,  Russian 
roads,  standing,  staff  in  hand  and  wallet  on  back,  gazing  up  towards  the 
altar  with  a  look  of  unutterable  yearning — a  modern  ''Christian"  with 
his  burden  looking  for  the  place  where  burdens  fall  away !  That  bur- 
dened pilgrim  is  Russia  to-day.  All  over  the  land  are  souls  athirst, 
finding  in  Orthodoxy  a  broken  cistern,  and  feeling  about  for  the  fountain 
of  life.  Baron  Nicolai  told  me  of  a  little  village  which  had  never  been 
visited  by  an  evangelical  preacher,  but  which  became  weary  of  the  rou- 
tine of  the  Greek  Church.  The  men  of  the  place  waited  upon  their 
''Pope"  and  asked  if  he  had  nothing  to  give  them  to  do  their  souls  good. 
He  angrily  locked  the  church  up  and  left  the  village.  Greek  Ortho- 
doxy, like  Rome,  fails  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  awakening  conscience. 

Now  what  is  the  meaning  of  all  this  unrest,  but  that  God  is  calling  the 
nations  to  higher  things,  that  He  is  preparing  for  a  new  manifestation  of 
His  kingdom — that  "empire  of  knowledge  and  of  love,  whose  administra- 
tion is  entrusted  to  His  Son" — the  kingdom  that  comes,  through  the 
ages,  not  with  observation,  not  with  beating  drum  and  flourish  of  trum- 
pets, but  by  the  triumph  of  the  Cross? 

But  who  are  to  be  the  standard  bearers  of  this  new  advance  of  the 
kingdom  of  God?  Shall  Ave  look  to  the  great  church-establishments  of 
Protestant  Europe — to  Lutheranism  in  Germany,  or  Anglicanism  in  the 
British  Isles?  These  churches  are  fettered  by  their  union  with  the 
worldly  power,  and  weighted  by  State  responsibilities.  In  vain  do  we 
look  to  them  for  the  free  spirit  which  shall  emancipate  the  weary  millions 
of  Europe.  Brethren,  it  is  my  heart 's  conviction  that  God  has  raised  up 
the  Baptists,  a  people  nourished  and  fortified  in  days  of  trouble  and 
tears,  for  the  work  of  this  very  hour.  At  this  moment  we  are  found  in 
every  European  land,  from  the  Castilian  Mountains  to  the  Ural  Range. 
In  dark  countries,  like  Bohemia,  where  the  light  of  the  Reformation  was 
once  quenched  in  blood,  the  light  flashes  out  again  from  little  Baptist 
churches :  along  the  storm-swept  Balkan  heights  we  trace  a  line  of  Bap- 
tist beacons ;  and  now  in  mighty  Russia  the  Baptists  are  becoming  a  host. 
"I  cannot  conceal  from  myself,"  said  a  Paedo-Baptist  from  Russia  to 
me,  "that  almost  all  the  evangelicals  of  Russia  are  Baptists."  The 
growth  of  the  Baptists  in  Russia  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Rus- 
sian press  which  gives  us  front-page  reports,  of  the  Russian  Government 
which  issues  restricting  regulations  for  our  congresses,  of  the  Holy 
Synod  which  imitates  our  methods  in  order  to  compete  with  us,  and,  best 
of  all,  of  the  Russian  people  who  crowd  our  gatherings,  week-day  and 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECOJW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  419 

Sunday.  I  have  myself  seen  them,  high  and  low,  thronging  now  a  palace 
ball-room,  now  a  school-room,  and  now  a  workmen's  hall,  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel Irom  our  brethren.  As  a  Russian  lately  wrote:  ''God  is  calling  the 
Baptists  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  moulding  of  the  young  Russia" — 
the  Russia  that  is  to  be. 

Now  is  there  anything  special  in  our  Baptist  position  which  may  fit 
us  to  be  the  heralds  of  this  new  movement  of  God's  kingdom  in  Eu- 
rope? I  think  there  is.  In  an  age  of  unsettlement,  wlien  men  are  seek- 
ing truth,  but  are  impatient  of  church  traditions,  the  Baptists  stand 
forth  with  the  open  Bible  in  their  hands,  basing  all  their  teaching  on 
"the  impregnable  rock  of  Holy  Scripture."  A  fine,  if  involuntary  trib- 
ute comes  to  us  in  this  respect  from  the  jjen.  of  a  leading  Roman  Catho- 
lic theologian  in  England.  Father  Hunter,  in  his  "Outlines  of  Dogmatic 
Theology,"  a  book  which  bears  the  imprimatur  of  the  late  Cardinal 
Vaughan,  points  out  that  in  accepting  infant  baptism,  the  great  mass 
of  Protestants  have  adopted  a  practice  for  which  there  is  no  "clear 
Scripture  warrant";  but  they  have  felt,  he  says,  "the  force  of  the  argu- 
ment from  tradition  and  the  authority  of  the  Church,"  and  have  in 
this  "abandoned  their  own  principle  as  to  the  rule  of  faith."  But  he 
goes  on  to  say  that  the  Baptists  are  "more  consistent  in  evil"  as  they 
refuse  to  admit  the  argument  from  Traditions  and,  taking  their  stand 
on  Scripture  alone,  reject  infant  baptism  altogether.  Between  the  Bap- 
tists and  the  Roman  Catholic,  there  is  in  this  matter,  says  Dr.  Huntei', 
"no  common  ground."  Yes,  it  is  true;  and  for  this  very  reason  we  are 
free  to  go  through  Europe  as  the  champions  of  the  Divine  Word.  Un- 
fettered by  tradition  we  bring  to  the  distracted  nations  of  ecclesiastical 
Europe  the  word  of  light  and  life  which,  when  applied  to  the  soul  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  makes  the  humblest  believer  independent  alike  of  the 
authority  of  Popes  and  the  decrees  of  Synods. 

Hence,  Baptists  are  always  the  loioneers  of  liberti/ — "Christ's  king- 
dom," wrote  Leonard  Buslier  in  1614,  in  his  "Plea  for  Liberty  of  Con- 
science," "is  not  of  this  world,  therefore  may  it  not  be  purchased  nor 
defended  with  the  weapons  of  this  world,  but  by  His  Word  and  Spirit." 
That  is  our  message  to-day  for  the  governments  of  Europe.  "Re- 
ligious freedom,"  wrote  a  Russian  Baptist  a  few  weeks  ago,  "is 
still  on  paper,  while  our  hands  and  feet  and  tongues  are  bound  in  the 
chains  of  the  law  as  formerly.  Persecutions,  blows  and  imprisonment 
are  our  treasure  and  glory."  When  will  the  rulers  of  earth  learn  that 
the  Christian  conscience  is  bound  by  the  word  of  (Jod  only,  and  that 
prison  and  exile  and  fines  for  differences  of  conscientious  judgment  are 
as  irrelevant  as  they  are  unjust?  We  Baptists  stand  everywhere  for 
freedom,  and  for  freedom  the  masses  of  Europe  are  pining  to-day. 

Again  we  have  a  special  mission  to  Europe  in  that  we  have  always 
been  a  denomination  of  evangelists.  At  the  heart  of  our  witness  is  the 
Cross — the  Cross  presented  with  love  and  earnestness  and  a  wooing 
plea  to  the  hearts  of  men.  One  thinks  of  John  Bunyan  tramping  the 
roads  of  Bedfordshire,  when  out  of  gaol,  to  bid  men  and  women  "Come 
and  welcome  to  Jesus  Christ";  or  of  William  Carey  sailing  to  far-off 
India  that  with  tongue  and  pen  he  might  point  sinners  to  Jesus;  or  of 
C.  H.  Spurgeon  standing  up  in  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  for  thirty 
years  to  tell  to  the  unfailing  multitude  what  a  dear  Saviour  he  had 
found;  or  of  J.  G.  Oncken  traveling  through  Germany  and  Russia  with 


420  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

the  evangel  of  redeeming  love.  And  one  rejoices  that  to-day  the  mantle 
of  the  prophets  is  not  lost.  Still  have  we  our  ardent  souls  in  whom  the 
passion  for  winning  men  to  God  burns  as  the  consuming  motive  of  life. 
And  the  people  are  welcoming  them.  In  France  and  Italy,  as  in  Russia 
and  Hungary,  burdened  consciences  are  finding  peace  through  the  blood 
of  the  Cross,  and  darkened  lives  are  receiving  the  light  of  a  transfig- 
uring joy. 

Surely  God  is  calling  us  to  carry  the  balm  of  Gilead  to  heal  the 
wounds  of  Euroi^e.  Can  we  hold  back  at  such  an  hour?  An  open  door 
is  set  before  us.  As  once  Paul  heard,  at  the  gate  of  the  West,  the  cry, 
''Come  over  into  Macedonia  and  help  us,"  so  now  to  us  comes  the  call 
from  Spain,  from  the  Balkans,  from  Russia.  To  hesitate  would  be  to 
lose  the  opportunity  of  ages.  To  delay  might  be  to  be  too  late.  The 
present  position  is  unstable.  The  people  are  turning  from  priestcraft; 
if  not  won  for  Christ  they  will  sink  into  materialism.  Already  in  Rus- 
sia the  spirit  of  negation  is  falling  upon  the  universities.  Hundreds  of 
students,  male  and  female,  are  giving  up  religious  belief,  and  with  it 
moral  restraint.  Social  and  political  changes  are  altering  the  character 
of  nations.  Democracy  is  coming  to  its  own ;  but  if  the  leaders  of  dem- 
ocracy are  to  be  atheistic,  of  what  value  will  freedom  be? 

To  us  as  Baptists  the  call  of  God  comes  as  a  trumpet-note.  We  are 
waking  to  consciousness  as  a  world-force;  we  glory  m  our  principles 
and  in  our  growing  strength;  we  have  this  week  gained  a  new  esprit  de 
corps.  But  what  is  to  be  the  end  of  it  all?  If  God  has  given  us  power, 
we  must  use  it  for  the  weak,  for  the  succoring  of  brethren  in  difficult 
places,  and  for  the  marshalling  of  our  forces  at  strategic  points.  Does 
not  the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  bid  us  concentrate  upon  Europe? 
Europe,  made  Christian,  peaceful,  missionary,  would  send  a  stream  of 
blessing  through  the  whole  world.  We  must  capture  Europe  for  Christ, 
by  sending  men  and  women  throughout  her  to  preach  with  Pentecostal 
power  the  ''Old,  old  story"  of  redeeming  love,  and  by  planting  Baptist 
churches  in  every  district  which  shall  be  fortresses  of  freedom  and 
truth.  But  we  cannot  do  this  with  foreign  armies  alone.  An  Oncken, 
or  a  Meyer,  may  act  as  pioneers;  but  for  the  development  and  consoli- 
dation of  the  work  we  must  look  to  the  sons  of  these  lands.  We  must 
build  up  a  native  ministry — pastors,  teachers,  evangelists,  instructed 
and  equipped,  who  shall  be  able  wisely  to  guide  the  new  churches  as 
they  spring  up.  The  Eastern  mind  is  rich  and  eager,  capable  of  great 
things  under  enlightened  leadership,  but  restless  and  tending  to  wander 
into  by-paths  if  left  without  judicious  guidance.  God  grant  that  we 
may  soon  have  a  college  in  eastern  Europe  for  the  training  of  young 
men  who  shall  become  in  the  countries  of  that  region  what  John  Bun- 
yan  and  Benjamin  Keach  and  Andrew  Fuller  were  to  England,  and 
what  Roger  Williams  was  to  America! 

But  if  we  are  to  fulfil  our  European  destiny,  we  must  seek  a  quick- 
ened spiritual  life.  No  planning,  no  subscription  list,  no  education  will 
avail,  unless  within  us  burns  the  spirit  of  an  intense  devotion  to  Christ. 
We  cannot  bring  the  kingdom  in,  unless  we  love  the  King.  Jesus  must 
be  all  to  us,  if  we  are  to  give  all  to  Jesus.  Alas!  in  many  of  our 
churches,  we  are  told,  the  glow  of  love  dies  down  and  the  passion  for 
souls  grows  faint.  We  need  to  go  back  to  Calvary  and  Pentecost,  if 
we  are  to  win  Europe  for  the  Saviour.     Only  the  old  power  will  tell. 


Sunday,  June  25.]  lilJCOJW  OP  PROCEEDINGS.  421 

And  tliis  can  be  ours  only  as  we  continue  instant  in  prayer — and  in 
prayer  into  which  our  souls  are  poured.  When  the  apostolic  Jolni  Elias 
died,  men  enquired  wlience  his  power  had  come.  His  widow  took  a  visi- 
tor into  his  study  and  said,  pointing  to  the  carpet  by  his  chair:  "I  have 
often  seen  that  spot  wet  with  his  tears."  There  was  John  Elias 's 
secret.  He  prayed,  as  David  Brainerd  did,  with  an  intensity  of  spiritual 
desire  that  drew  his  very  soul  into  his  intercession,  and  from  such 
pi'ayer  he  came  forth  charged  with  the  energies  that  men  cannot  resist. 

We  need  a  revival  of  praj^er  and  love  and  sacrifice — a  renewal  of  fel- 
lowship with  Jesus  in  the  travail  that  redeems.  A  great  vision  floats 
before  us — of  a  Europe  enlightened,  emancipated,  unified,  a  lovely  pro- 
vince in  the  Saviour's  Empire — ;  but  the  vision  can  become  fact  only 
as  His  visions  did.  ''Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  en- 
dured the  Cross,  despising  shame." 

0  Church  of  our  Fathers,  cradled  amid  sorrows,  kept  through  stormy 
years,  made  strong  in  ages  of  stiaiggle,  and  standing  now  at  the  gates 
of  a  great  opportunity — hold  not  thj'  peace  in  this  hour  of  needed  deliv- 
erance, for  "who  knoweth  whether  thou  art  not  come  to  the  kingdom 
for  such  a  time  as  this"? 

Hymn,  "1  Love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord." 

Rev.  George  W.  Truett  delivered  the  following  address: 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM  IN  AMERICA. 

By  Rev.  GEORGE  W.  TRUETT,  D.  D.,  Texas. 

Fellow-Baptists,  my  first  word  is  a  word  of  gratitude  that  God's  mer- 
cies have  been  so  richly  over  this  Alliance  for  this  week  from  its  open- 
ing session  till  its  closing  hour;  a  word  of  gratitude  to  this  good  city, 
the  City  of  Brotherly  Love;  a  word  of  profoundest  gratitude  for  these 
men  who  have  come  from  every  nation  beyond  the  doors  of  this,  to 
hearten  us  and  inspire  us  as  we  have  never  been  heartened  and  inspired 
before.  We  can  well  understand  why  Lloyd-George  said  that  our  noble 
President,  Dr.  Clifford,  has  a  conscience  without  a  crack  in  it.  And  Ave 
have  looked  on  the  face  of  Mr.  Meyer  and  heard  him;  he  made  us  think 
of  Christ.  And  as  we  have  seen  and  heard  this  sagacious  statesman  of 
a  secretary  for  Europe  our  hearts  have  burned  within  us  with  an  in- 
expressible thrill.  And  as  we  have  seen  these  our  suffering  brethren 
from  the  lands  afar,  we  have  resolved  as  never  before  for  the  rest  of  the 
journey  earthly  to  give  our  best  to  our  King.  These  men  who  are  suffer- 
ing now  will  not  fail;  they  will  remember  their  fathers  and  by  such 
memory  they  will  be  inspired  to  bravest  and  un fainting  endeavor.  Our 
fathers  held  the  bridge  of  truth  against  overwhelming  armies;  these  suf- 
fering brothers  from  the  other  lands  stand  in  this  Thermopylae  of  the 
ages,  and  just  as  their  fathers  threw  themselves  into  the  breach  and 
saved  Zion,  so  shall  these  men  in  the  lands  afar. 

Mv  task  to-night  is  the  task  of  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle.    We  have 


422  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

had  a  week  where  the  hours  have  come  and  gone,  many  of  them,  and 
every  phase  of  polity  and  doctrine  and  method  seems  to  have  passed  in 
review  before  us.  This  week  may  well  be  likened  to  a  great  council  of 
war  where  God's  men  have  surveyed  the  battle-field  and  have  taken  cog- 
nizance of  their  forces.  The  issue  is  the  conquest  of  the  world  for  the 
Saviour,  and  we  have  seen  and  felt  as  never  before  that  the  victory  is 
as  certain  as  the  promises  of  God.  But  what  of  America  in  this  great 
program?  The  eyes  of  all  the  world  are  on  America.  Emerson  said 
that  America  seems  to  have  been  the  last  effort  of  divine  Providence  on 
behalf  of  the  race.  Hon.  Mr.  Bryee,  the  Honorable  Ambassador  for 
Great  Britain,  said  that  America  is  attemiDting  the  largest  experiment 
in  self-government  in  the  history  of  the  world ;  and  that  noble  Spurgeon 
said  to  one  of  our  brethren  a  little  before  his  departure,  ''Go  back  to 
your  country  and  tell  your  men  that  the  hopes  of  the  world  are  centered 
in  your  country,  the  free  Church  in  the  free  State,  and  do  your  best." 

America  is  threatened  to-day  by  manifold  perils.  Optimism  is  a  very 
stupid  and  hurtful  sort  of  thing  if  it  fails  to  face  the  facts.  Hope  should 
never  be  blind.  That  man  who  will  put  his  ear  down  and  listen  with  a 
little  care  shall  hear  the  rumblings  of  subterranean  forces  that  hiss 
under  the  thin  crust  of  our  civilization.  Certain  perils  menace  this  great 
America.  I  may  hastily  sketch  some  of  them.  We  are  menaced,  for  one 
thing,  by  our  vast  and  fast-growing  cities.  The  challenge  for  our  civili- 
zation and  the  test  of  our  Christianity  are  these  same  cities.  As  go  the 
cities,  so  shall  go  the  nation,  and  if  the  churches  are  to  save  America 
they  are  confronting  the  task  of  saving  these  cities.  The  poi^ulations  of 
our  country  are  rapidly  hurrying  to  the  cities;  in  1800  only  three  per 
cent  of  the  people  were  in  the  cities  of  America,  now  something  like 
forty  per  cent  are  in  the  cities,  and  in  another  short  generation  at  the 
present  ratio  more  than  twenty  million  of  a  majority  of  the  people  shall 
live  in  the  cities.  In  the  cities  all  the  extremes  of  life  meet ;  in  the  cities 
all  the  tastes  for  civilization  converge.  There  is  Dives  in  the  city  with 
his  flaunting  and  ostentatious  and  oft-times  wicked  wealth,  and  there  is 
Lazarus  hard  by  him  rotting  in  the  slums.  There  are  the  best  and  the 
worst  that  meet  in  the  city.  In  the  city  is  the  scurvy  politician,  that 
gentleman  that  Jotham  tells  about  in  his  parable,  who  said  to  all  the 
trees  of  the  field, — "Come  all  of  you  and  put  your  trust  in  my  shadow," 
and  in  many  of  our  cities  the  trees  of  the  field  are  putting  their  trust 
under  the  shadow  of  the  bramble  which  neither  bears  fruit  nor  gives 
shade. 

In  the  cities  is  massed  the  amazing  saloon  poAver,  the  intolerable  curse 
of  American  civilization,  that  syndicated  power  that  menaces  everything 
in  American  life,  that  leech  is  sucking  the  blood  from  the  veins  of 
our  Eepublic,  that  anachronism  of  our  modern  civilization,  that  rich 
fiend  and  chronic  criminal  of  all  centuries  here  converging  in  the  cities. 
We  must  reckon  with  that  evil  force.  And  allied  with  that  force  is  that 
same  scurvy  politician  and  the  gambler  and  everything  and  person  that 
worketh  and  maketh  a  lie. 


Sunday,  June  25.  J  RECOh'IJ  OF  I'h'0VIJI'Jf>ING8.  423 

In  the  city  wo  have  to  an  awful  degree  a  venal  press.  Not  by  a  very 
great  deal  is  all  the  press  venal,  thank  God,  but  in  the  city  we  face  the 
problem  of  a  press  to  a  remarkable  degree  without  serious  moral  pur- 
pose and  without  lofty  patriotism.  I  do  not  know  any  more  timely  word 
that  America  needs  lo-day  than  that  ringing  note  of  Paul  to  the  Gala- 
tians  where  lie  sounded  out  the  declaration  of  the  independence  of  the 
human  soul  and  in  that  ringing  note  said,  "Brethren,  we  have  been 
called  to  liberty  indeed,  only  use  not  your  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the 
flesh."  America  is  suffering  in  many  ways  and  places  from  an  over- 
dose of  misused  liberty,  and  one  of  such  sufferings  is  expressed  in  a  mis- 
used press.  To  be  sure  we  would  not  have  a  muzzled  press,  but  a  free 
press,  an  untrammeled  press,  a  press  not  censured  by  the  Sultan,  nor 
sizzled  by  some  Czar,  and  yet  the  press  in  many  instances  in  this  great 
land  of  ours  has  used  its  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  tlesh.  It  goes 
through  the  sewers  and  cesspools  for  matter  with  which  to  fill  its  col- 
umns. It  opens  ulcers  and  leprosies  before  our  boys  and  girls  that  they 
ought  never  to  see.  It  exploits  the  doings  of  rich  fools  and  harlots  and 
suicides  whose  names  ought  never  to  be  mentioned.  It  plunges  its  ac- 
cursed beak  into  the  putrescent  carcasses  of  crime  and  virtue,  and  it 
parades  it  all  before  a  waiting  world.  Oh,  gentlemen  of  the  press,  ye 
are  called  into  liberty,  only  use  not  your  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the 
flesh. 

We  are  confronting  the  problem  in  this  country  of  immigration,  one 
of  the  most  menacing  perils  that  confronts  this  great  continent,  the  peril 
of  immigration,  a  peril  marvelous  both  because  of  its  magnitude  and  be- 
cause of  its  quality.  The  immigrant  to-day  is  to  a  large  degree  very 
different  from  the  immigrant  here  in  the  long-ago.  In  the  long-ago  God 
seemed  to  sift  all  Europe  to  get  a  composite  and  universal  people  for 
working  out  here  on  this  continent  a  civilization,  that  should  point  the 
way  for  the  world.  The  Puritans  came  from  old  England,  men  who  had 
felt  the  fires  of  Smithfield ;  the  Huguenots  came  from  France,  who  had 
heard  from  their  fathers  the  story  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day; 
the  Covenanters  certain  and  glorious  came  from  their  con- 
venticles throughout  the  hills  of  Scotland;  the  beggars  came  from  Hol- 
land who  were  wrecked  in  the  fierce  struggle  and  suffering  for  liuman 
rights.  All  Europe  seems  to  have  been  sifted  in  that  early  day  by  tlie 
Almighty  that  he  might  get  Avheat  here  to  plant  to  bring  on  a  harvest 
that  should  point  the  way  for  the  healing  of  the  nations;  and  not  since 
Abraham  Avent  out  from  his  own  land  to  a  land  that  he  knew  not  of,  has 
there  ever  been  such  a  migration  as  that  which  came  to  America  in  those 
early  days,  for  the  shaping,  the  creating  of  a  nation  for  the  eyes  of  the 
world. 

"We  are  confronted,  my  brothers,  Avith  a  different  ]iroblein  now.  Thaidc 
God  the  nations  of  the  world  are  yet  sending  us  many  of  their  noblest 
and  bravest  sons  and  daughters,  and  yet  along  Avith  that  nundier  comes 
a  vast  alien  force  Avhich  shall  put  a  strain  ujion  American  institutions, 
that  shall  trv  our  life  to  its  deepest  depths.     Wide  open  and  unguarded 


424  TB.E  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

stand  our  gates  and  through  them  comes  a  wild  motley  throng.  Men 
from  the  Volga  and  the  Steppes,  men  from  the  Hoang  Ho,  Malayan, 
Scythian,  Teuton,  Celt  and  Slav,  bringing  the  old  world's  ignominy  and 
scorn,  these  bring  unknown  gods  and  rites,  those  tiger  passions  here,  to 
stretch  their  claws  in  the  street  and  alley,  with  strange  accents  and  loud 
voices  that  menace  our  very  air,  voices  that  once  the  Tower  of  Babel 
knew.  Oh,  Liberty,  white  goddess,  is  it  thus  well  to  leave  our  gates  un- 
guarded? Fifty  nationalities  or  more  fill  up  all  the  larger  cities  of  this 
American  continent;  and  that  very  fact,  the  alien  populations  of  the 
world  with  their  strange  customs  and  beliefs  and  ideals  and  sentimen- 
talisms,  these  all  are  putting  a  strain  on  American  life  that  shall  try  us 
to  the  last  desperate  degree. 

And  another  peril  that  menaces  our  American  life  is  the  vast  aggrega- 
tion of  our  wealth.  Not  in  all  the  history  of  humanity  have  there  been 
seen  such  aggregations  of  wealth  as  may  be  seen  on  the  American  land. 
Such  aggregations  are  both  staggering  and  appalling,  and  one  of  the 
most  menacing  dangers'  that  any  nation  ever  faced  is  the  danger  of  ac- 
cumulating wealth.  Luxury  enervates  and  deteriorates  and  destroys, 
and  to-day  one  of  the  problems  of  all  problems  in  our  American  life  is 
whether  she  can  stand  the  strain  of  this  heaving,  boiling  sea  of  vast  ac- 
cumulations, and  that  virus  in  American  blood  which  cries  out  to  get 
rich  quick  and  to  get  more  and  still  more  of  material  treasure.  For 
money  all  our  ideals  have  been  tainted,  and  for  money  all  our  ideals  have 
been  in  danger.  That  passion  for  money  is  this  hour  to  a  terrible  de- 
gree dictating  terms  to  society  and  seaming  our  highest  patriotism  and 
stifling  intellectuality.  That  nation,  that  civilization,  has  a  dismal  fu- 
ture before  it  if  it  shall  put  money  before  men.  One  of  the  dangers 
of  American  life  is  that  same  menacing  danger. 

Then  there  are  other  evils  on  every  side  that  march  in  rapid  review 
before  us.  The  home  by  a  thousand  reasons  is  beleagured  and  imperilled, 
and  when  the  home  goes  down  everything  holy  in  our  civilization  is  tot- 
tering to  its  doom.  In  our  great  country  lawlessness  to  a  fearful  degree 
stalks  like  a  pestilence  through  the  land.  In  our  great  country  the  awful 
gulf  between  labor  and  capital  remains  unclosed.  In  our  great  country 
divorce  mills  continue  to  grind  out  their  disgraceful  results.  In  our 
great  country  the  craze  for  amusement  threatens  the  destruction  of 
things  serious,  and  such  threatening  threatens  the  destruction  of  the 
sense  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  reverence.  In  our  great  country  irrever- 
ence grins  in  the  face  of  God.  We  run  to  cartoon  and  levity.  In  our 
great  country  the  social  world  is  filled  with  frivolities  and  vanities,  and 
the  business  world  crowded  with  dishonesties,  and  the  political  world 
bathed  with  graft,  and  the  religious  world  mocked  by  formalism  that  is 
never  to  bring  Christ's  people  to  their  knees.  Oh,  this  is  no  time,  my 
brothers  for  that  negative  complacent  soft-going  optimism  which  says 
soothingly,  ''All  is  well."  But  what  have  I  said  this  for?  To  chant  a 
dirge?     No,  no.     To  sound  out  a  jeremiad?     No.     But  to  beat  a  charge. 

Great  tasks  create  and  challenge  great  folks,  and  the  task  that  is  be- 


Suiulaj^  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINOS.  425 

fore  the  American  people  is  a  task  to  call  out  the  noblest  activity,  and 
in  doing  it  to  build  the  loftiest  possible  character  beneath  the  sun. 
Paul  said  a  great  and  effectual  door  was  open  to  him,  and  added,  "and" 
— not  but — "and  there  are  many  adversaries."  The  same  glorious  gospel 
with  which  the  early  Christians  overcame  the  rotting  Roman  Empire  in 
one  generation  is  our  gospel  yet;  and  the  same  almighty  and  living  Sa- 
viour tliat  panoplied  them  for  their  work  stands  just  as  ready  to  panoply 
us  for  ours. 

What  are  our  resources  ?  It  will  cheer  us  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the 
numbers  that  our  people  in  America  have.  Some  four  million  white  Bap- 
tists North  and  South,  belonging  to  these  two  separate  Conventions, 
several  thousand  noble  Baptists  yonder  in  Mexico  where  that  upheaval  is 
working  an  evolution  toward  democracy  that  shall  make  for  the  noblest 
results  for  Baptists ;  several  thousand  Baptists  in  Latin  America  through- 
out this  great  continent;  and  yonder  in  Canada,  not  a  great  army,  but 
never  a  more  heroic  and  devoted  army  rallied  about  Christ's  flag  than 
our  Baptists  of  Canada.  Nor  is  that  all,  nor  is  that  least.  More  than 
two  million  Baptists  in  black  who  keep  one  spirit  and  one  aim  and  one 
consecration  and  one  purpose  as  they  go,  the  flying  evangels  of  Christ 
to  make  known  the  gospel  to  the  world.  You  brethren  from  afar,  from 
the  many  countries  throughout  the  whole  world  beyond  this,  when  you 
go  back,  tell  them  that  the  white  Baptists  of  America  count  as  one  of 
their  chiefest  and  most  glorious  assets  in  winning  America  and  the 
world  to  Christ,  our  great  army  of  brothers  in  black  who  are  side  by 
side  with  us.  I  do  not  stop  to  discuss  our  institutions,  our  colleges,  our 
seminaries,  our  papers,  our  hospitals,  and  orphanages,  and  the  manifold 
institutions  that  are  siDringing  up  all  over  this  vast  continent.  What  a 
great  force  we  have  to  deploy  upon  this  marvelous  field. 

And  in  addition  to  that,  the  currents  are  now  in  this  country  begin- 
ning to  run  our  way  even  more  and  more,  and  they  are  running  our  way 
more  and  more,  for  that  matter,  in  all  the  lands  afar.  This  is  democ- 
racy's hour.  This  is  the  hour  when  Demos  is  in  the  saddle,  this  is  the 
hour  when  the  average  man  has  been  given  and  is  being  given  his  dig- 
nity, this  is  the  hour  wlien  the  family  of  Mr.  Nobody  is  rapidlj'  becoming 
the  family  of  Mr.  Somebody;  and  the  triumph  of  democracy,  thank 
God,  means  the  triumph  for  Baptists  everj-where. 

Nor  is  that  all.  We  have  a  distinctive  mission  and  message  to  the 
world.  That  denomination  that  does  not  have  its  separate  mission  and 
message,  which  cannot  be  given  up,  is  guilty  of  criminal  sin  against 
God  and  man.  Certain  age-long  contentions  for  which  we  have  stood 
cannot  be  given  up,  and  in  that  very  fact  the  distinctiveness  and  impera- 
tiveness of  our  mission  and  message,  we  find  the  marvelous  challenge  to 
our  best.  There  is  untold  power  in  him  Avho  knows  a  language  of  God's 
own  tongue,  and  the  Baptists,  my  people  at  home  and  abroad,  have  a 
mission  and  a  message  which  they  cannot  give  up;  and  in  that  fact  they 
have  a  marvelous  challenge  and  opportunity  for  the  expression 
of       their      noblest       life.  Absolute     loyalty     to    the    person     and 


426  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

authority  of  Jesus  Christ;  personality  and  religion,  and  therefore  no 
proxies,  nor  sponsors,  nor  deputies  in  the  Kingdom  of  God;  the  right 
and  the  duty  of  private  judgment ;  the  Church  of  Christ  a  spiritual  insti- 
tution and  therefore  the  inexorable  necessity  of  a  regenerate  member- 
ship !  And  in  such  regenerate  membership  and  in  such  spirituality  of 
church  organization  there  is  a  death-blow  to  infant  baptism  and  to 
hierarchies  and  to  government  of  churches  by  State.  Certain  great  age- 
long contentions  we  cannot  yield,  and  in  the  very  distinctiveness  of  our 
mission  and  message  we  have  one  of  the  world's  most  inspiring  oppor- 
tunities. 

Oh,  we  hail  certainly  with  gladness  every  trend  toAvard  the  union  of 
God's  people;  and  happily  God's  people  as  represented  by  my  Baptist 
people  are  in  a  glorious  position  to  make  a  suggestion  to  all  our  re- 
ligious brothers  of  all  other  nations;  that  suggestion  is,  "Brethren,  we 
must  come  back  to  the  source  of  religious  unity  and  authority  with 
which  the  early  fathers  went  forth  to  their  warfare  and  that  source  of 
religious  authority  and  unity  is  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ's  voice 
in  his  word."  No  other  formula  do  we  ask,  no  other  ecclesiastical  ca- 
non will  we  adopt,  but  we  come  back  to  the  word  of  God,  the  authority 
of  Jesus  therein  voiced,  and  we  call  men  everywhere  to  come  to  us  for 
union  and  authority  even  to  that  Book. 

Marvelous  was  that  scene  in  1870  when  yonder  in  the  Vatican  the 
dogma  of  papal  infallibility  was  passed.  In  the  awful  excitement  and 
clamor  of  that  hour  Archbishop  Manning,  later  Cardinal  Manning,  rose 
to  some  great  eminence  to  quell  that  turbulent  people  in  the  midst  of 
that  awful  decision  and  Avhen  he  got  their  attention,  holding  in  his  hand 
the  paper  pronouncing  papal  infallibility  to  be  the  doctrine  of  Roman- 
ists, holding  that  dogma  in  his  hands,  he  said,  "Let  all  the  world  go  to 
bits  and  we  Catholics  will  reconstruct  it  on  that  paper."  The  Baptist 
smiles  when  he  hears  that,  but  taking  up  a  little  Book  and  holding  it 
aloft,  his  word  to  the  world  is,  "Let  all  the  world  go  to  bits  and  we  will 
reconstruct  it  on  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  voiced  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament." Some  things  in  this  world  are  unchangeably  true  and  others 
are  just  as  unchangeably  false,  and  never  did  truth  win  her  battles  on 
any  land,  or  in  the  midst  of  any  people,  by  compromising  in  any  one 
iota  the  fundamentals  of  truth.  Oh,  brothers,  beyond  all  else  for  which 
we  long,  do  we  long  for  the  union  of  God's  people,  but  we  want  no  om- 
nibus compromise,  we  want  no  sham  union  or  unity;  we  want  union  and 
unity  alone  on  the  authority  of  the  Son  of  God. 

And  we  Baptists  come  back  to  the  word  of  God  as  the  absolute  and 
ultimate  authority  for  the  people  of  God.  God  seeketh  such  to  worship 
him  as  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Let  us  put  that  latter  part 
in  too.  If  a  man  shall  come  saying,  "I  get  my  revelations  by  an  inner 
consciousness  and  that  alone,"  I  will  tell  him,  "You  are  on  the  par  with 
the  men  in  the  old  days  of  the  Judges  when  the  Scriptures  declare  of 
them,  'Every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.'  "  0 
brothers,  we  shall  come  back  to  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  as  voiced 


Siuulay,  June  J.5.]  REVO  lilt  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  427 

in  this  truth  aiul  with  that  authority  we  will  2,0  forth  to  the  warfare 
into  which  we  are  called. 

\^liat  is  the  task  of  America?  The  task  of  America  is  that  she  her- 
self become  thoroughly  and  truly  Christian.  Brethren,  this  great  Amer- 
ica can  command  the  conversion  of  the  world  on  one  condition  onlj^, 
and  that  is  that  she  be  Christian  through  and  through,  and  that  is  the 
great  call  of  this  hour  to  America.  Little  shall  it  matter  that  our 
missionaries  stagger  down  to  premature  graves  in  India  and  China  and 
Japan  and  the  Islands  of  the  Sea,  if  the  nominally  Christian  lands  are 
to  remain  nominally  Christian.  Oh,  my  brothers,  the  one  call  loud  and 
clear  to  the  nominally  Christian  nations  of  earth,  America  and  Britain, 
is  that  these  great  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  shall  be  thoroughly  Christian 
and  shall  preach  Christ's  glorious  gospel,  not  simply  through  a  few  mis- 
sionaries on  the  foreign  field,  but  in  every  phase  and  fibre  of  our  na- 
tional life. 

The  globe  trotter  and  the  trader  have  done  the  Christian  religion  im- 
measureable  harm.  They  have  misrepresented  us  before  every  mission 
field  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  America  is  to  be  Christian  in  her  com- 
merce and  in  her  politics,  in  her  art  and  in  her  education,  in  her  litera- 
ture and  in  every  phase  and  fibre  of  her  social  order.  And  until  that 
shall  come  to  pass  the  nations  shall  roll  on  in  spiritual  darkness  and  out 
into  eternity  without  the  knowledge  of  God. 

We  must  remember  that  no  longer  are  there  any  hermit  nations,  no 
national  secrets  are  there  any  more;  the  world  is  a  whispering  gallery 
now.  The  nations  have  been  brought  into  one  great  neighborhood ;  the 
seas  have  dwindled  into  little  brooks  and  nothing  anywhere  can  now  be 
done  in  a  corner,  and  America  is  being  bombax'ded  with  questions  from 
every  heathen  land  beneath  the  stars.  Those  questions  go  to  the  very 
heart  of  our  life.  We  are  being  asked, — "Why  do  you  have  plague 
spots  in  your  cities'?"  We  are  being  asked,  "Why  are  you  deaf  to  the 
crj^  of  two  and  a  half  million  children  that  work  in  your  factories?" 
We  are  being  asked,  "^Hiy  is  there  such  evidence  of  greed  in  business 
and  such  debauching  graft  in  politics?"  We  are  being  asked,  from 
every  land  under  the  stars,  "Are  you  yourselves  Christians?"  And  w^e 
shall  be  more  and  more  under  the  bombardment  of  those  searching  and 
of  other  questions.  The  only  thing  that  can  save  America,  and  through 
her  a  large  part  of  the  world,  ife  that  America  shall  be  Christian 
through  and  through  and  first  of  all  the  people  of  God. 

The  prophet  saw  tlie  day  when  the  very  horses  should  have  on  their 
bells  the  inscription  of  "Holiness  to  the  Lord,"  as  well  as  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  mitre  of  the  priests,  and  when  the  pans  and  pots  in  the 
kitchen  should  be  marked  with  holiness  as  well  as  the  vessels  in  the 
temple  of  God.  That  day  must  be  ours  when  commerce  and  literature 
and  politics  and  the  entire  social  order  shall  be  massed  into  one  living 
consecrated  impact,  power  on  fire  for  Christ,  and  every  pagan  super- 
stition will  fall  before  it  in  one  year. 

The  present  call  to  America  then  is.  perhaps  as  never  before,  a  mighty 


428  TEE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

call  to  give  the  gospel  to  all  the  peoples.  Is  it  a  sufficient  remedy?  It 
has  solved  the  question  of  the  cities  wherever  it  has  been  given  a  fair 
trial;  it  has  solved  the  question  of  immigration  from  the  time  the  im- 
migrant has  come  until  to-day.  It  will  solve  the  question  of  the  dread- 
ful gulf  between  labor  and  capital,  for  men  will  never  be  brothers  in- 
deed until  they  are  brothers  through  the  saving  grace  of  God.  It  will 
solve  the  questions  in  every  relation  and  position  of  life,  from  the  man 
on  the  boulevard,  hardest  of  all  to  reach  because  he  is  so  barricaded  by 
pride  and  wealth  and  liveried  servants,  to  the  man  on  the  Bowery  hear- 
ing  Jerry  Maeauley  telling  of  Christ's  power  to  save. 

0  brothers,  the  hour  is  ripe  for  the  noblest  religious  campaign  for  the 
saving  of  men  that  the  nations  ever  saw.  God  is  not  only  the  God  of 
grace  but  the  God  of  providence,  and  he  is  pointing  the  way  now  as 
never  before  for  the  noblest  effort  the  world  has  known  to  win  souls  to 
Christ  Jesus.  We  must  do  that  to  accredit  our  churches.  Cold-blooded 
and  unbelieving  men  will  continue  to  shoot  out  their  lips  with  scorn 
until  we  have  those  credentials  of  Christ  sent  back  in  his  statement  to 
John,  and  that  crowning  credential  of  his  messiahship,  as  of  the  divine 
mission  of  the  church  at  this  hour,  is  that  the  poor  shall  have  the  gos- 
pel preached  to  them.  We  must  do  that  to  save  the  churches  themselves. 
Oh,  I  would  plead  with  unceasing  faithfulness  for  orthodoxy  in  our 
churches,  to  be  sure;  and  yet  there  is  such  a  thing  as  dead,  dry  ortho- 
doxy out  of  which  has  gone  the  heart-beat  and  the  passion  for  a  lost 
world.  The  land-mark  that  most  of  all  needs  resetting  in  our  American 
churches  is  the  predominant  passion  to  save  lost  souls,  and  any  church 
out  of  which  has  gone  that  passion  is  going  on  the  rocks,  and  any  church 
out  of  which  has  gone  that  passion  is  but  a  grinning,  ghastly  skeleton 
of  a  church;  and  any  preacher  out  of  whose  preaching  has  gone  that 
passion  is  no  longer  an  evangelical  preacher,  preach  whatever  he  may 
and  however  eloquently  he  will.  The  only  thing  that  can  save  our 
churches  is  a  living  orthodoxy.  The  only  thing  that  can  save  America 
and  Britain  and  all  the  world  is  a  living  passion  worthily  voiced  by  the 
lips  and  lives  of  God's  people  to  bring  a  lost  world  to  him.  That  is  the 
call  to  America. 

Oh,  my  brothers,  the  hour  is  ripe  for  the  best  thing  that  America  ever 
did  for  herself  and  for  all  the  nations  afar,  and  that  is,  in  an  earnest- 
ness passionate  with  the  throbs  of  the  cross,  to  go  out  to  win  this  land 
and  then  the  other  lands  afar  to  the  feet  of  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord.  And 
that  great  consummation  is  coming.  We  have  seen  in  this  Alliance  the 
vision  of  that  all-glorious  day;  Jesus  is  marching  towards  high-noon  in 
his  conquests  of  the  world;  he  will  be  King  at  Washington  and  in  Lon- 
don  and  in  Berlin  and  in  Paris  and  in  St.  Petersburg.  He  will  rule  over 
Congress  and  Parliament  and  Reichstag  and  Duma  and  every  govern- 
ment and  commerce  and  class  in  all  the  world.  This  hour  he  is  marching 
to  his  coronation  as  King  in  all  the  wide  world. 

Many  are  the  stories  they  tell  of  that  beautiful  world-famed  Queen, 
Victoria,  but  this  appealed  to  me  almost  as  none  other  that  I  ever  heard. 


Sunday,  June  25.]  RECORD  OF  PROCEEDIN OS.  429 

One  day  as  she  listened  to  the  chaplain  preach  a  sermon  on  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  coming  again  of  Jesus  to  tlie  world,  those  near  the  royal 
box  noticed  the  beautiful  Queen  as  she  shook  with  emotion,  as  her  lips 
quivered  and  as  her  eyes  were  suffused  with  tears.  When  the  service 
was  ended  she  asked  to  see  the  chaplain  alone,  and  when  he  was  ushered 
into  her  presence  and  beheld  her  great  emotion  he  asked  her  its  occasion, 
and  she  said,  "Oh,  sir,  what  you  said  about  the  coming  again  of  the 
world's  rightful  King."  And  he  said,  ''Why  are  you  so  moved?" 
And  she  said,  ''I  could  wish  to  be  here  when  he  comes."  .  He  said, 
"And  why  do  you  wish  to  be  here  when  he  comes?"  And  with  emo- 
tion indescribable  and  sublimely  glorious  she  said,  "That  I  might  lay 
this  crown  at  his  blessed  feet." 

Oh,  brothers  and  sisters  in  this  Alliance  from  America,  from  Europe, 
from  Asia,  from  the  land  of  Ham,  from  the  Islands  of  the  Sea,  out  of 
every  nation  under  heaven,  shall  we  not  to-night  in  that  vast  mighty 
presence  dedicate  our  all  to  bring  about  that  unspeakably  glorious  con- 
summation, and  then  after  a  bit  that  enrapturing  word  shall  be  passed 
along  the  line  that  he  reigns  in  America  and  in  Britain's  vast  domains 
and  in  the  mighty  dominions  of  the  Czar  and  the  Emperor  and  the  Sul- 
tan and  in  all  lands,  and  among  all  peo^sles;  and  all  dominions,  and  all 
republics,  and  all  governments  and  all  peoples  shall  be  lost  in  that  one 
kingdom  of  him  who  is  the  world's  blessed  and  only  Potentate,  him 
w'hose  it  is  here  and  forever  to  be  King  of  kings  and  Loixl  of  lords. 
Even  so  come.  Lord  Jesus.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  J.  Henry  Haslam,  of  Philadelphia:  Mr.  President,  my  dear 
friends,  I  have  had  the  honor  of  welcoming  to  this  city  and  to  these 
conventions,  our  Northern  Baptists,  and  of  saying  some  words  of  wel- 
come also  to  the  assembled  representatives  of  this  Baptist  World  Alli- 
ance; and  now,  sir,  I  am  asked  to  say  just  a  single  word  of  God-speed 
after  j'our  tarrying  with  us.  It  would  seem  to  me  that  after  reaching 
the  gi'eat  heights,  the  commanding  outlook  to  which  we  have  been  car- 
ried to-night  as  if  we  ought  not  to  tarry  to  multiply  words.  We  have 
extended  to  you  with  great  gladness  eveiy  courtesy  of  which  we  could 
think.  There  is  one  note  that  has  not  been  sounded  through  these  great 
assemblies,  and  that  note  I  wish  to  sound  in  a  word  or  two  to-night. 

Most  of  you  will  recall  that  a  few  years  ago  in  the  city  of  Buffalo 
there  was  held  what  was  called  the  Pan-American  Exposition.  There  is 
a  tragic  memory  for  all  Americans  connected  with  that  great  Exposition. 
Those  of  j'ou  who  were  there  will  remember  a  striking  sroup  statue  which 
stood  on  the  shores  of  that  beautiful  artificial  lake.  The  statue  was 
one  by  Borglum,  an  American  artist.  In  the  centre  of  the  group  stood  a 
life-size  statue  in  the  midst  of  a  chariot,  holding  the  reins  over  four 
great  steeds.  On  the  right  hand  side  of  the  driver  stood  another  statue, 
life  size,  on  his  shoulder  a  cog-wheel,  representative  of  the  manufacturing 
arts.  On  the  left  hand  side  was  another  statue,  over  his  shoulder  a 
scythe,  suggestive  of  the  agricultural  arts.    At  the  other  extreme  of  this 


430  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

group  of  three,  were  two  more  statues,  this  time  of  women  with  trum- 
pets to  their  lips  as  if  they  were  sounding  a  conquering  march  of  the 
man  who  held  the  reins.  Just  behind  the  figure  in  the  chariot  stood  a 
heroic-sized  statue  of  the  Spirit  of  Progress,  leaning  over  the  man  and 
whispei'ing  into  his  ear  as  if  to  encourage  him  in  his  triumphant  march. 
On  the  pedestal  was  chiseled,  "The  Genius  of  Man."  After  studying 
this  impressive  group  and  turning  away  from  it  you  will  recall  that  you 
were  face  to  face  with  the  Ethnology  Building.  Around  the  dome  in  one 
of  the  panels  was  this  striking  inscription,  quoted  I  think  from  Emer- 
son 's  ' '  The  Method  of  Nature. "  "  0  rich  and  various  Man !  thou  palace 
of  light  and  sound,  carrying  in  thy  senses  the  morning  and  the  night  and 
the  unfathomable  galaxy;  in  thy  brain,  the  geometry  of  the  City  of  God; 
in  thy  heart,  the  bower  of  love  and  the  realms  of  right  and  wrong." 

As  one  thovight  of  the  suggestive  statue  and  the  great  sentence  of  the 
American  scholar  and  moved  out  over  those  asphalt  pavements  all 
atremble, — because  underneath  them  was  hidden  away  the  vast  machin- 
ery that  operated  the  whole  exposition,  the  power  for  which  by  the 
cunning  skill  of  man  was  got  by  dropping  a  part  of  Niagara's  torrent 
into  a  deep  well  to  turn  the  mighty  turbine  wheel  aiid  send  along  the 
copper  cable  the  power  to  move  the  great  Exposition, — as  one  thought  of 
this  achievement,  this  statue,  this  sentence  from  the  scholar,  of  course  he 
was  impressed  with  that  marvelous  and  skilful  way  in  which  the  man 
was  holding  in  leash  the  cosmic  energies  and  bidding  them  do  his  will. 
But  an  afterthought  brought  back  to  every  visiting  American  I  am  sure 
this  deeper  truth  that  greater  than  anything  that  any  man  had  ever  done 
was  the  man  who  did  it,  and  greater  than  any  utterance  man  ever  spoke 
was  the  man  who  spoke  it. 

This  side  of  the  sapphire  throne  of  God,  the  greatest  thing  on  earth 
is  the  man  whom  God  has  made  in  his  own  spiritual  image  and  likeness, 
and  all  through  the  days  of  this  meeting  you  have  been  bringing  us  by 
your  testimonies  from  Russia  and  Moravia  and  Hungary  and  Great 
Britain  and  America  and  the  rest  of  the  world,  you  have  been  bringing 
to  our  city  and  to  us  the  emphasis  of  this  mighty  truth  that  this  man 
has  the  right  to  direct  access  to  almighty  God,  and  when  he  goes  and 
enters  into  that  personal  relation,  then  and  then  only  is  he  fitted  for  his 
place  in  the  social  order  and  in  the  progress  of  civilization. 

And  what  I  am  come  to  say  just  now  in  a  word  of  God-speed  and  fare- 
well to  our  visiting  brethren  is  this,  that  Avhile  you  have  appreciated  any 
courtesies  it  has  been  our  pleasure  to  show,  we  want  you  to  go  back  to 
your  far  field  of  service  of  the  King,  remembering  that  by  the  new  em- 
phasis upon  this  mighty  truth  you  have  given  to  us,  to  our  city,  to  our 
State,  to  all  of  us,  an  inspiration  and  an  uplift  and  a  vision  for  which 
we  shall  forever  bless  you  and  bless  our  God  who  sent  you  here.  God- 
speed on  your  errand  of  mercy  with  your  message  of  love  to  the  faraway 
lands  of  earth.  God  bless  you,  my  brothers  and  sisters,  as  you  go.  Hail, 
farewell,  till  we  meet  again. 


Sunday,  June  J.-).  |  HIWOIU)  OF  I'ROVEEDlSGti.  431 

Chairman:  On  behalf  ol'  those  who  are  visitors  here  I  am  sure  I  must 
say  this  that  we  are  exceodinyly  grateiul  lor  those  wishes.  If  1  had 
halt'  an  hour  to  talk  I  should  be  glad  to  endeavor  to  express  the  gratitude 
which  is  within  us  and  which  has  been  stirred  afresh  by  what  has  fallen 
from  the  lips  of  Dr.  llaslam.  We  are  very  grateful  for  those  good 
wishes  which  you  have  just  expressed  to  us  and  shall  endeavor  to  show 
our  gratitude  in  the  devotion  of  our  hearts  in  the  Kingdom  of  our  God. 

Dk.  Prestriugk:  It  falls  to  me  and  is  my  great  plea:^ure  to  read  these 
resohitions  of  thanks.  1  think  that  is  fitting  because  for  two  or  three 
months  I  have  been  in  daily  correspondence, — and  sometimes  three  and 
four  times  a  day, — with  the  various  chairmen  of  the  committees  here, 
and  1  know  of  their  labors,  of  their  afflictions  and  of  theii-  patience : 

RESOLUTION  OF  THANKS. 

Resolved,  That  this  second  session  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  from 
the  standiJoint  of  extended  hospitality  has  proven  a  happy  and  delight-  • 
ful  success;  that  Philadelphia  has  more  than  carried  out  all  of  her  prom- 
ises making  the  sessions  complete  and  our  social  entertainment  a  joyous 
experience  never  to  be  forgotten.  We  herewith  express  to  Rev.  Howard 
Wayne  Smith  and  through  him  to  his  able,  large,  efficient,  gracious,  and,' 
to  us,  beautiful,  corps  of  assistants  and  to  the  local  press  our  unbounded 
gratitude.  The  whole  city  of  Philadelphia  has  counted  us  its  guests, 
and  we  shall  always  believe  that  its  name  most  happily  embodies  the 
spirit  of  its  citizens. 

Mr.  Shakespeare:  Dear  Dr.  Clifford,  Dr.  Prestridge,  and  Christian 
friends:  I  have  been  asked  to  speak  for  a  moment  or  tv/o  on  this  resolu- 
tion, which  is  a  general  expression  of  thanks  to  those  Avho  have  been 
working  for  our  entertainment  and  reception  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
and  to-night  my  thoughts  cannot  but  go  back  to  the  great  London  meet- 
ing of  the  Alliance  and  to  the  closing  meeting  which  so  strangely  and 
sti-ongly  reminds  me  of  this  gathering,  in  which  ten  thousand  Baptists 
met  together  in  our  great  Albert  Hall,  and  none  of  them  left  the  build- 
ing until  at  the  close  all  joined  hands  and  sang,  ''Blest  Be  the  Tie  that 
Binds." 

To-night  I  am  profoundly  thankl'ul  that  we  have  ended  upon  such  a 
note  of  Baptist  witness  and  service  as  has  been  struck  by  my  beloved 
friend  and  brother.  Dr.  Truett.  We  are  all  very  tliankful ;  w-e  are  very 
tired  but  cheerful,  tired  but  pleasant,  tired  but  thankful  about  every- 
thing except  that  it  is  all  over  and  we  are  going  home.  We  do  feel  tired. 
I  am  reminded  of  your  great  President  McKinley,  who  was  spending  the 
night  at  the  house  of  an  American  relative  of  mine,  and  who  had  been 
having  a  long  day's  work  on  what  is  called  the  platform  and  a  long 
night's  work  in  which  no  one  went  to  bed;  and  when  he  came  in  in  the 


432  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

morning  to  breakfast  and  sat  clown  and  they  asked  him  what  he  wanted 
he  said,  "All  I  want  is  a  few  kind  words  and  an  orange." 

Well,  now,  we  have  been  standing  up  on  this  platform  to-night  and 
many  of  us  have  been  receiving  your  unstinted  and  generous  applause, 
but  we  are  thinking  we  are  much  more  conscious  of  a  secret  body  of 
workers  who  can  never  have  their  due,  to  whom  we  can  never  express  all 
that  we  owe  and  you  owe  for  their  long  service  and  their  unwearied  kind- 
ness and  labor.  And  among  these  we  put  first  our  friend,  Mr.  Howard 
Wayne  Smith,  who  has  been  behind  the  scenes  getting  irregular  meals, 
or  none  at  all,  directing  his  great  army  with  all  the  skill  of  a  great  gen- 
eral and  leader.  I  am  afraid  he  is  very  much  worn  out.  I  had  dinner 
in  his  home  the  other  night  and  I  could  not  help  noticing  that  he  seemed 
to  be  absolutely  exhausted  in  body  and  in  mind,  and  I  am  not  sure 
whether  it  would  be  better  for  him  that  he  should  now  go  to  bed  for  three 
months  or  be  sent  to  Europe.  I  have  been  carrying  on  a  long  corres- 
pondence with  him,  and  I  witness  to-night  that  I  have  never  had  a  cor- 
respondence more  business  like  or  more  punctual  or  more  courteous 
'than  that  with  my  friend,  Mr.  Howard  Wayne  Smith.  There  have  been 
with  him  many  others;  I  should  like  to  mention  some  of  them,  but  per- 
haps it  is  better  not.  I  should  forget  some,  and  you  know  who  they  are, 
and  we  do  thank  them  all  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts. 

What  hospitality  we  have  had!  This  American  hospitality  of  yours 
was  overwhelming  and  astonishing.  As  somebody  said,  "Where  we  in 
England  give  a  chop  you  give  a  week." 

And  then  it  would  be  very  wrong  if  to-night  I  did  not  seize  this  op- 
portunity of  saying  something  about  one  with  whom  I  have  been  work- 
ing from  the  very  beginnings  of  this  Alliance;  I  mean  Dr.  Prestridge. 
I  was  reminded  of  him  the  other  day.  I  was  reading  a  book  called  "I 
Myself,"  by  Mrs.  T.  P.  O'Connor.  She  is  an  American,  a  Southerner, 
and  she  tells  in  that  book  that  her  father,  who  was  an  Amei'ican  judge  in 
a  Southern  city,  had  the  most  beautiful  face  that  she  ever  saw,  and 
that  one  day  he  was  walking  the  streets  of  New  York,  and  a  young  man 
came  up  to  him  and  said,  "Sir,  I  have  three  thousand  dollars  which  I 
wish  to  invest  and  I  want  you  to  tell  me  how  to  do  it."  Well,  her 
father  took  this  young  man  to  a  proper  quarter,  but  he  said  to  him, 
"How  is  it  that  you  came  to  me  and  asked  me  to  help  you  in  this — a 
stranger?"  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  have  been  standing  on  the  streets  of 
New  York  for  half  an  hour  waiting  until  a  man  came  along  in  whose  face 
I  had  complete  confidence."  Now,  I  think  that  if  Dr.  Prestridge  will 
come  to  London  and  stand  on  Cheapside  he  won't  have  to  wait  half  an 
hour  before  convincing  the  people  that  he  has  got  a  face  which  commands 
complete  confidence.  We  had  confidence  and  love  for  him  from  the  first 
moment  that  we  saw  him.  Many  of  you  love  the  Alliance,  but  if  there  is 
any  man  in  America  who  loves  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  it  is  Dr. 
Prestridge.  He  loves  it  with  all  his  heart  and  soul  and  strength.  I 
have  watched  him  this  week,  and  whenever  there  has  been  anything  said 
that  will  help  the  Alliance  his  face  has  glowed  like  a  poem,  it  filled  his 


Sunday,  June  2.1.1  h'KCOh'n  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  433 

heart  with  joy,  and  he  cannot  conceal  his  S'lfiflness  when  lie  finds  some- 
thing' done  or  said  wliich  helps  the  cause  of  the  Allianct. 

We  want  to  thank  the  press;  we  have  all  of  us  suffered  niucli  from  tlie 
press  in  our  time,  especially  when  they  give  us  publicity  by  putting  in  in- 
verted commas  the  very  things  we  have  not  said.  But  where  should  we 
be  without  the  press?  This  American  press,  in  spite  of  what  Dr.  Truett 
has  said,  is  for  the  most  part  earnestly  and  sincerely  trying  to  help  good 
causes,  this  press  which  is  so  ubiquitous  and  seems  so  omniscient  that 
after  all  it  seems  unnecessary  to  interview  anybody,  because  they  can 
always  tell  the  public  what  you  would  have  said  if  you  had  been.  They 
have  treated  us  very  well  in  Philadelphia ;  they  have  given  a  great  deal  of 
space  to  our  proceedings,  and  we  are  very  grateful  to  the  press. 

I  just  want  to  note  tw^o  things.  This  Alliance  has  been  the  triumph 
of  the  older  men,  I  don't  say  the  old  men  but  the  older  men, — that  is 
to  say,  the  men  over  seventy,  and  of  course  I  mean  Di*.  Clifford,  and 
Russell  Conwell,  and  F.  B.  Meyer,  who  though  he  is  not  seventy  looks 
as  though  he  ought  to  be.  It  has  been  a  great  thing  for  us  to  see  and 
hear  Russell  Conwell.  He  seems  to  me  in  some  respects  as  embodying 
the  tremendous  energy  of  the  American  people.  And  Dr.  Clifford,  well 
he  never  will  grow  old.  You  don 't  know  him  as  well  as  we  do.  You  have 
seen  something  of  him,  his  amazing  energy.  He  is  a  living  volcano.  He 
is  an  incarnate  steam  engine.  He  is  everything  that  is  wonderful.  He 
is  our  leader  in  England,  the  leader  of  the  Free  Churches.  He  is  the 
only  Non-conformist  minister  that  the  late  Conservative  Prime  Minister 
ever  answered  directly  by  pamphlet.  Of  course  he  put  him  in  prison 
at  least,  he  sold  his  goods  as  well,  but  that  is  no  answer,  to  sell  a  man's 
goods.  He  tried  to  answer  him  in  a  pamphlet, — and  he  said  he  didn't 
like  Dr.  Clifford's  style.    We  are  proud  of  Dr.  Clifford. 

We  had  a  company  of  prelates  and  bishops  from  other  countries  come 
to  us  in  England  not  long  ago  and  they  didn't  any  of  them  like  the 
Baptists,  and  they  didn't  know-  very  much  about  them,  but  when  they 
came  to  England — well,  I  will  tell  you  what  we  did.  I  went  to  the  sec- 
retary and  I  said,  "Give  me  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  chief  pre- 
lates and  bishops  who  are  coming,"  and  so  he  gave  them  to  me,  and  I 
said,  "Now  I  will  find  hospitality  for  them,  I  will  find  homes  for  them  to 
stop  in."  And  I  put  them  all  in  beautiful  Baptist  homes,  and  I  said, 
"Now  don't  tell  them  you  are  Baptists,  but  drive  tliem  about  in  automo- 
biles and  do  everything  you  possibly  can,  and  about  the  end  of  the  third 
day  break  it  gently  to  them  that  you  are  Baptists,  and  then  see  if  they 
faint."  The  proceedings  Avent  on,  but  there  Avas  nobody  to  translate 
what  they  wanted  translated  except  our  young  Baptist  ministers  who 
knoAV  all  these  languages  of  course,  and  every  noAv  and  then  they  have 
to  get  a  translator,  and  they  had  to  call  in  a  Baptist  boy. 

At  our  last  meeting  Ave  had  two  speakers  in  Albert  Hall,  the  Bishop  of 
London  and  Dr.  Clifford.  The  Bishop  of  London  is  a  very  fine  speaker, 
and  when  he  had  done  Dr.  Clifford  came  up  and  avo  all  clapped;  the 
28 


434  THE  BAPTIST  WOULD  ALLIANCE. 

whole  of  those  ten  thousand  people  clapped  as  though  they  wouldn't  leave 
off  clapping.  There  was  a  very  portly  and  dignified  bishop  sitting  behind 
me,  and  he  said  to  me,  "Who  is  that?"  pointing  to  Dr.  Clifford.  I 
said,  ' '  He  is  a  Baptist. "  "  Why, ' '  he  said,  ' '  everybody  here  seems  to  be 
a  Baptist."  I  said,  "Well,  most  of  the  people  are  that  are  any  good," 
I  said,  "He  is  a  Baptist  minister."  "Oh,"  he  said,  "I  thought  he  must 
be  a  parliamentarian."     That  is  the  first  thing  I  have  noted. 

The  other  thing  I  have  noted  is  what  a  wonderful  marshalling  of  our 
forces  there  has  been.  We  have  seen  something  we  have  never  seen  be- 
fore in  this  world.  I  don't  think  we  shall  ever  see  it  again.  I  hope  we 
have  seen  the  last  of  this  persecution ;  I  hope  better  days  are  coming.  We 
have  wished  and  longed  sometimes  that  we  might  have  seen  Cranmer  and 
Ridley  and  Latimer.  We  have  seen  their  spiritual  successors.  These 
men,  the  whole  wealth,  the  whole  power,  the  whole  learning,  the  whole 
pomp  and  majesty  of  their  country  is  against  them,  and  what  do  they 
care?  They  are  willing  to  stand  alone,  and  they  are  a  great  example  to  us 
and  a  great  inspiration.  These  men  are  willing,  like  Paul,  for  the  whole 
world  to  be  against  them  but  will  stand  firm  and  faithful  to  Jesus 
Christ. 

There  is  one  other  thing  that  has  happened;  I  think  we  have  dispelled 
all  your  prejudices.  If  ever  you  had  any  suspicions  about  our  orthodoxy 
they  must  all  have  gone  by  now.  If  ever  any  of  you  thought  we  English 
ministers  didn't  preach  the  gospel  you  have  lost  that  idea.  From  first  to 
last  I  have  spoken  about  the  older  men,  but  the  younger  men  are  just  the 
same.  We,  all  of  us  in  England  in  the  Baptist  ministry,  are  faithful  to 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  we  are  not  new  theologians.  And  I  am  thank- 
ful to  say  as  secretary  of  the  Baptist  Union  in  England  that  the  younger 
ministry  gives  me  no  trouble  in  that  respect  and  is  just  as  much  a  crown 
and  a  rejoicing  as  the  older  ministry. 

Well,  friends,  we  will  meet  again  in  five  years'  time;  we  will  meet  at 
Berlin.  I  hope  you  will  come,  I  hope  you  will  see  these  continental  Bap- 
tists close  at  hand.  But  meanwhile  the  Avorld  will  roll  on,  all  these 
forces  and  dangers  of  which  Dr.  Truett  has  spoken  will  be  operating  in 
the  world,  and  we  Baptists  have  to  make  our  contribution.  We  have  to 
make  it  by  a  singular  combination  of  narrowness  and  breadth,  of  inten- 
sity and  of  gentleness — which  is  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  itself.  The  gos- 
pel is  broad,  but  the  gospel  is  narrow.  The  kingdom  is  gentle  and  sweet, 
but  the  kingdom  is  intense.  And  the  Baptists  seem  to  me  to  unite  in 
themselves  the  breadth,  the  liberality,  the  feelings  of  sweetness  and  cul- 
ture which  ai"e  one  side  of  the  gospel  and  the  kingdom ;  but  on  the  other 
hand  we  have  to  stand  for  the  narrowness,  the  intensity,  and  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  faith  whicii  Chi-ist  has  committed  to  us.     ( Applause,  j 

Chairman  :  Shall  we  repeat  the  custom  that  was  established  in  Albert 
Hall,  by  grasping  hands  as  we  sing  this  hymn,  "Blest  be  the  Tie  that 
Binds"? 

Singing  as  indicated. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  435 

The  Congress  adjourned  after  the  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Di*. 
Clifford. 

Note. — The  following  addresses  through  misunderstanding  did  not  find 
place  in  their  proper  connection.  They  are  therefore  given  here. — 
[Editor.] 

EELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  FRANCE. 
By  R.  SAILLENS. 

As  I  look  upon  this  vast  audience,  entirely  made  up  of  believers  in 
Jesus  Christ  who  make  it  their  one  purpose  in  life,  both  as  individuals 
and  as  Christian  societies,  to  realize  by  His  grace  the  Divine  life  upon 
earth,  and  who  take  the  inspii-ed  Book  as  their  only  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  a  mixed  impression  comes  over  me. 

I  feel  happy  with  you,  and  on  account  of  you.  That  baptized  believers 
should,  by  the  Avonderlul  increase  of  their  numbers  in  late  years,  have 
become  such  a  potent  factor  of  the  world's  future,  is  a  cause  for  deep 
joy  and  gratitude  to  God.  When  we  remember  how,  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, the  truths  we  represent  have  been  buried  in  oblivion,  or  fought 
by  priest  and  ruler  with  tremendous  cruelty,  your  presence  here,  beloved 
brethren,  appears  as  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  imperishableness 
of  Christ's  doctrine.  For  our  growth  owes  nothing  to  the  protection  of 
the  sword ;  it  is  a  purely  spiritual  phenomenon ;  ours  is  one  of  the  very 
te\v  forms  of  Christianity  which  have  trusted  solely  to  liberty,  and  faith, 
and  love,  as  their  weapons.  Thus  an  object-lesson  of  great  import  is 
given  to  the  world  to-day.  May  we  rejoice  in  all  humility,  and  never 
depart  from  that  simplicity  of  heart,  faith  and  worship,  which  are  most 
difficult  to  keep,  as  the  history  of  the  early  Church  too  abundantly 
shows,  when  the  heroic  times  are  over,  and  the  persecuted  party  becomes 
a  social  power. 

Yes,  I  thank  God  with  you  and  for  you.  But  you  will  pardon  me  if 
there  is  in  my  heart,  mixed  with  that  joy,  a  sense  of  melancholy.  Here 
we  are,  only  two  or  three  of  us,  as  the  representatives  of  France. — 
France!  At  one  time,  the  name  sounded  as  a  synonym  of  all  that  was 
generous,  chivalric,  and  enlightened;  the  oppressed  nations  turned  to- 
wards France  as  to  their  natural  ally.  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos  was  a  by- 
word in  foregone  times. 

And  God  forbid  that  we  should  lose  faith  in  the  destinies  of  our  be- 
loved country!  Even  now,  France  keeps  ahead  in  many  ways;  in  the 
realms  of  science,  discovery,  literature,  and  ai't,  she  is  second  to  none. 
Her  generous  instincts  live  still.  The  Spirit  of  God  has  not  departed 
from  her;  He  is  brooding,  at  this  very  time,  on  the  troubled  waters  of 
French  democracy. 

May  I  remind  you  that  in  the  religious  history  of  the  world,  France 
has  played  a  noble  part?  Somehow,  Roman  Catholicism  has  never  been 
able  to  have  its  full  play  in  our  country.  The  dark  superstitions  of  the 
Middle  Ages  Avere  relieved  by  manifestations  of  the  true  light  in  such 
men  as  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,"  Gerson,  Abelard,  or  brighter  still,  in  Peter 
Valdo,  Pierre  de  Bruys,  and  many  others.  The  Inquisition,  with  its 
auto-da-fes,  never  could  be  established  in  France.  Jesuitism  has  ever 


436  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

been  repugnant  to  the  soul  of  a  nation  which  has  produced  such  men  as 
Pascal,  Arnaud,  and,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  Gratry,  Montalembert, 
Lamennais,  Didon.  The  defeat  of  the  Reformation  in  France  has  not 
been  as  complete  as  some  would  make  it  out;  much  of  the  Reformers' 
spirit  entered  into  the  very  soul  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  France,  and 
thus  it  is  that  French  Romanism,  even  to-day,  is  morally  superior  to  the 
Romanism  of  other  countries,  such  as  Spain,  Italy,  and  Portugal. 

Nor  should  it  be  thought  that  French  Protestantism  is  altogether  dead. 
The  preservation  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  France,  after  the  two 
dreadful  blows  of  St.  Bartholomew  (1572)  and  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  (1685) — both  preceded  and  followed  by  relentless  per- 
secution— is  nothing  short  of  a  miracle.  It  Avas  due  to  the  wonderful 
power  of  the  Bible,  which  these  trodden  people  never  gave  up,  and  to 
the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  wlio  now  and  then  raised  up  men  of  con- 
secration and  courage,  who  were  the  Nehemiahs  of  the  little  remnant, 
and  never  allowed  the  enemy  to  be  unchecked.  Gracious  revivals  took 
place,  by  which  the  lamp  of  the  gospel  was  rekindled.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  such  a  visitation  of  God  among  our 
French  churches,  and  I  am  glad  to  record  that  one  of  the  chiefest  in- 
struments of  that  movement  by  which  French  Protestantism  was  saved 
from  Rationalism,  was  that  saintly  Scotch  Baptist,  Robert  Haldane. 

There  are  now  in  France  about  600,000  born  Protestants,  the  lineal 
descendants  of  the  Huguenots.  Among  them  as  among  any  such  number 
of  English  or  American  people,  there  is  a  majority  of  indifferent  non- 
church-goers;  but  the  minority  of  true  believers  is  just  as  large,  propor- 
tionately, as  in  any  other  Protestant  community.  A  great  amount  of 
work  and  pecuniary  sacrifice  is  done  by  them,  for  the  support  of  the 
poor,  for  the  evangelization  of  the  country,  and  for  foreign  missions. 
Protestant  education  makes  superior  men  and  women ;  hence  it  is  that, 
though  our  numbers  are  so  small  in  comparison  with  the  total  population 
(thirty-nine  millions)  our  social  influence  is  great  and  growing.  There 
is  no  doubt  for  me  that,  but  for  tbe  part  Protestants  have  played  in  the 
political  life  of  the  country,  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  would 
not  have  taken  place.  That  Baptist  principle  is  being  fully  carried  out 
in  France,  first  among  the  nations  of  Europe  in  this  respect.  The  small 
Republic  of  Geneva  has  taken  it  from  us,  and  now  Portugal  comes  in  the 
van.    Let  us  hope  England  will  soon  follow! 

The  Baptist  cause  in  France  is  a  small  one,  as  far  as  numbers  go. 
We  are  one  of  the  smallest  Baptist  communities  represented  here,  far 
behind  America,  whose  liberties  our  forefathers  helped  to  secure,  far 
behind  England,  our  friendly  rival  on  so  many  fields  of  human  activity, 
far  behind  Germany,  to  whom  we  are  all  grateful  for  her  great  Luther, 
far  behind  Russia,  where  such  wonderful  progress  has  been  lately  made. 
But  notice  that  all  these  countries  and  Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  are 
all  free  from  the  yoke  of  Rome;  and  here  you  touch  on  the  deadly  in- 
fluence of  Roman  Catholicism.  How  is  it  that  our  principles  make  more 
progress  in  the  North  and  Southeast  of  Europe  than  in  the  South  and 
Southwest?  Are  the  Latin  races  intellectually  inferior  to  the  Saxons 
and  Slavs'?  No! — But  the  direct  outcome  of  Romanism  is  the  deaden- 
ing of  the  spiritual  sense;  atheism  flourishes  where  the  Pope  has  long 
reigned  supreme.  And  it  is  a  very  difficult  work  to  revive  the  human 
conscience,  where  it  has  been  under  the  fatal  influence  of  an  infidelity 


RECOIW  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  437 

■which  has  been  fostered  by  ages  of  Romish  superstition.  However,  there 
are  bright  symptoms  in  our  country  to-day. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Protestant  churches  are  awakening.  Tlie  sep- 
aration from  the  State  has  been  a  great  boon  to  them,  and  there  are 
very  few  among  their  leaders  to-day  wiio  would  go  back  to  State  sup- 
port, even  if  it  were  offered  again.  The  old  Kelormed  Churcli  is  becom- 
ing, to  a  great  extent,  both  evangelical  and  evangelistic.  ''Missions" 
are  being  carried  on  in  many  of  its  parishes,  and  a  genuine  revival  of 
the  old  faith  is  taking  place  in  many  parts.  The  Mission  preachers  are 
not  all  members  of  the  church  which  benefits  most  of  their  work;  in  a 
spirit  of  true  liberalism  the  Reformed  leaders  have  called  upon  some 
whom  they  formerly  would  have  treated  as  Dissenters  and  excluded 
from  their  pulpits,  and  have  asked  them  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  their 
flocks,  and  help  them  revive  the  Protestant  communities  at  large.  How 
could  Ave  refuse  such  a  call?  And  thus  it  is,  that  for  the  last  few 
years,  some  of  us  Baptist  preachers  have  had  the  largest  and  most  in- 
fluential churches  opened  to  us,  with  free  scope  to  preach  the  funda- 
mental truths  of  the  gospel,  and  to  emphasize  personal  conversion  as  the 
true  basis  of  the  church,  rather  than  birthright  privilege.  Hundreds 
have  thus  been  brought  to  the  Lord,  in  Missions,  Conventions,  and  Bible 
Schools  in  which  Baptists  had  the  leading  part.  That  work  is  going  on 
still,  and  one  of  the  best  results  is  the  cordial  understanding  and  Chris- 
tian love  between  brethren  who  had,  for  years,  ignored  each  other,  or 
worse  still,  entertained  bitter  feelings  towards  one  another. 

And  as  we  see  the  Protestant  churches  take  new  life  under  the  gospel 
preaching,  our  ambitions  grow  larger.  It  seems  to  us  that  the  tirne  has 
come  for  a  more  energetic  and  extensive  campaign,  among  the  masses  of 
the  French  people  outside  our  churches.  The  intoxication  of  material- 
ism seems,  to  be  passing  away ;  the  people,  long  disgusted  with  priest-; 
craft,  begin  to  show  signs  of  weariness  towards  infidelity  also:  the 
promises  of  the  preachers  of  free-thought  have  not  been  fulfilled,  and 
many,  among  the  thoughtful  in  every  class  and  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try are  longing  f^r  some  doctrine  which  shall  serve  as  a  basis  for  na- 
tional morality.  At  the  vei*y  time  I  am  preparing  this  speech,  a  work  of 
unprecedented  scope  is  being  organized:  a  tent  holding  1,000  sittings  is 
being  erected  at  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city  of  JParis,  and  it  is  hoped 
that,  by  means  of  extensive  publicity,  every  Parisian  will  know  of  its 
existence,  and  will  have  an  opportunity  to  hear  the  proclamation  of  the 
good  news  of  salvation.  This,  for  a  large  part,  is  due  to  Baptist  money 
and  enterprise,  and  the  principal  speakers  will  be  Baptists,  though  it  is 
expected  that  all  the  evangelical  preachers  of  Paris  will  take  part  in  this 
cami)aign. 

The  Baptist  churches  in  France  number  about  2,000  members,  three- 
fourths  of  whom  were  born  Roman  Catholics.  Small  as  we  are,  it  is  our 
pride  that  we  recruit  mainly  from  the  outside  masses,  rather  than  from 
the  other  Protestant  communities.  These  recruits  come  mainly  from  the 
working  classes;  few  of  the  wealthy  come  to  us,  as  yet.  Hence,  we  are 
unable,  single-handed,  to  cope  with  the  great  needs  of  the  people,  and 
our  work  of  evangelization  has  to  be  done  on  economical  lines.  Our 
meeting  places  are  of  the  simplest  kind.  But  though  i)oor,  our  members 
are  generous:  the  average  amount  of  their  gifts  for  the  churcli  and  its 
activities  is  about  40  francs  per  head;  more,  I  believe,  than  most  of  our 
sister  churches  on  the  Continent  of  Europe. 


438  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

If  the  number  of  Baptists  is  small,  that  of  the  baptised  believers  out- 
side our  denomination  is  constantly  growing.  The  testimony  which  our 
churches  have  rendered  is  bearing  fruit  which  they  do  not  all  reap.  In 
the  CongTegationalist  body,  a  large  number  of  ministers  have  been  bap- 
tized, and  Christian  Immersion  is  practised  currently.  In  the  old  Re- 
formed Church  itself,  the  belief  in  the  divine  institution  of  infant 
sprinkling  is  but  loosely  held,  and  many  ministers  are  ready  to  grant 
that  our  position  is  the  biblical  one.  Some  of  us  entertain  the  hope 
that,  under  the  imjDulse  of  God's  Spirit  a  sui-generis  movement  inside 
that  church  itself  will  break  out,  which  shall  lead  to  the  formation  of 
New  Testament  churches.  In  the  meantime,  we,  the  Trench  Baptists, 
your  spiritual  sons,  wish  to  express  our  gratitude  to  you,  American 
Baptists,  for  the  generous  help  and  liberal  leadership  we  have  enjoyed 
from  you,  for  so  many  years  past.  We  need  them  still.  It  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  minimize  the  importance  of  the  Latin  nations  as  a 
mission  field.  The  Southwestern  part  of  Europe  is  the  stronghold  of 
Rome,  and  it  is  there  that  Rome  is  to  be  fought  and  conquered,  in  order 
to  arrest  her  designs  upon  the  Protestant  nations,  where  she  is  trying 
to  recover  her  lost  power.  France,  Italy,  Spain — if  those  lands  were 
freed  from  Rome,  and  became  the  scene  of  a  new  Reformation —  what 
a  boon  this  would  be  for  the  rest  of  the  world !  Be  not  dismayed  by  the 
overwhelming  difficultj^  of  the  task;  it  is  good  strategy  to  try  and  strike 
at  the  vitals  of  the  enemy,  at  its  very  center  of  action.  Protestant 
Christianity  owes  the  pure  gospel  to  all  the  world,  but  primarily  to 
those  lands  where  the  pure  gospel  has  been  obscured  by  man's  additions 
to  it. 

Remember,  also — and  allow  me  to  take  some  comfort  from  that  fact — 
that  you,  the  Baptists  of  the  world,  owe  much  to  Frenchmen  of  past 
generations.  If  the  representatives  of  France  on  this  platform  are  few 
and  insignificant,  the  spirit  of  one,  at  least,  of  our  illustrious  dead,  is 
present  with  us  to-day.  Can  you  pi'operly  estimate  what  the  Christi- 
anity of  America  owes  to  John  Calvin?  Why,  I  verily  believe  the 
staunchest  Calvinists  in  the  world  are  to  be  found  here  to-day!  Yes, 
your  spiritual  thought  has,  to  a  large  extent,  sprung  from  that  crystal 
source  of  that  lucid,  logical,  and  sanctified  mind ;  and  as  there  are  drops 
of  Huguenot  blood  in  the  veins  of  many  of  you,  there  is  a  deep  vein  of 
Huguenot  doctrine  and  Huguenot  consistency  in  your  minds  and  hearts. 
God  grant  that  we  may  all  be  worthy  of  such  a  spiritual  ancestry,  which 
makes  the  Evangelical  and  Baptist  communities  of  the  world,  one  family 
in  Christ ! 

Note. — The  French  Baptist  churches  form  two  Associations,  joined  in 
one  Union.  They  have  carried  on  the  work  over  the  frontiers  of  France, 
into  Belgium,  and  French  Switzerland.  A  few  French  Baptists  are  En- 
gaged in  Mission  work  among  the  Arabs  and  other  Moslem  races  in  Al- 
geria (North  Africa).  Quite  lately  a  French  Baptist  Missionary  Com- 
mittee has  been  formed,  and  supports  by  the  gifts  of  our  own  people  one 
missionary  in  that  land. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  439 

REVIVAL  IN  RUSSIA. 
By  J.  S.  PROKHANOFF. 

The  Lord  is  at  hand.  Phil.  4 :  G. 

During  the  few  minutes  allowed  I  cannot  of  course  speak  on  the  his- 
tory of  the  revival  or  details  of  its  present  condition.  T  have  to  confine 
myself  by  necessity  to  statements  witli  i-egard  to  (1)  some  features  of  the 
movement  and  (2)  some  means  by  which  it  can  be  promoted. 

SOJIE   FEATURES   OF   THE   REVIVAL. 

Great  acts,  issued  by  the  present  Emperor,  Nicholas  XL:  (1)  the  Uuaz, 
April  17,  1905,  concerning'  the  right  of  separation  from  the  Orthodox 
Church,  and  (2)  Uuaz,  October  17,  1906,  giving  the  Nonconformists 
the  right  to  form  the  churches  and  associations — these  two  acts  divdde 
the  revival  into  two  distinct  periods:  (1)  persecution  period  before  1905, 
and  (2)  toleration  period  since  1905. 

"We  all,  who  come  here  from  Russia,  are  conscious  of  the  great  change 
that  has  taken  place.  I  cannot  help  recalling  that  in  1897  I  was  in  Eng- 
land in  the  position  of  refugee,  my  father  having  been  at  that  time  in 
exile  in  Transcaucasia. 

At  present  we  all,  in  Russia,  can  freely  move  and  publicly  confess  our 
faith,  and  the  people  (with  a  very  few  exceptions)  are  not  persecuted 
for  their  separation  from  the  established  church. 

But  the  greatest  change  has  taken  place  in  the  scope  of  the  work 
opened  to  us  since  the  proclamation  of  religious  liberty.  It  is  only  in 
1906  that  the  first  permission  for  the  evangelistic  periodical  (the  Chris- 
tianizing) was  obtained  from  the  government  and  now  we  have  a  series 
of  periodicals:  Baptist,  Radostnosia  West,  Post.  We  have  also  a  weekly: 
"Utrenniaia  Zwezda, "  a  progressive  organ  for  the  promotion  of  the  re- 
ligious awakening  of  Russia,  for  discussing  the  religious,  political,  social, 
industrial,  scientific  questions  from  our  point  of  view. 

It  is  only  in  1908,  our  first  publishing  association,  Raduga,  was  founded 
and  now  we  have  others. 

It  was  only  in  1909,  the  first  permission  for  the  public  conference  of 
the  representatives  of  our  churches  was  given  and  now  these  permissions 
are  given  freely.  The  new  condition  of  things  has  allowed  us  to  found 
the  first  Christian  young  people's  associations  and  even  to  have  four 
conferences  of  their  representatives. 

The  first  church  in  St.  Petersburg  was  legalized  on  November  26, 
1908,  and  now  we  have  a  series  of  legalized  churches.  The  le- 
galized churches  have  the  right  to  hold  the  public  meetings,  to  make  col- 
lections, to  build  the  meeting  houses,  to  have  property,  to  found  schools, 
philanthropic  institutions,  etc. 

The  first  schools  were  founded  by  the  above  first  legalized  church  in  St. 
Petersburg.  Of  course  we  cannot  say  that  our  religious  liberty  is  perfect. 
We  have  to  expect  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  improvement,  but  never- 
theless the  standard  of  liberty  we  are  enjoying  now  gives  great  possi- 
bilities for  tlie  work. 

We  understand  the  danger  connected  Avith  the  liberty:  the  danger  of 
numbers  (Luke  22:  31)  etc. 


440  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Unfortunately,  we  cannot  boast  at  present  of  great  numbers.  Just  on 
the  contrary,  the  numbers  are  not  striking  at  all.  We  cannot  sjDeak  about 
thousands  of  conversions  in  a  day,  about  striking  phenomena  in  the  re- 
vival !  no  fire,  no  storm,  no  earthquake,  etc.  The  movement  is  rather 
quiet  and  this  quietness  may  be  a  very  good  token :  it  is  very  similar  to 
the  "still  small  voice"  that  was  revealed  to  Elijah.  The  revival  is  not  a 
fiery  chariot  running  into  the  limitless  space  but  rather  like  a  grain  that 
has  been  hidden  under  the  ground  of  persecutions  and  now  has  come 
out  of  the  ground  to  the  air  and  light.  It  is  a  natural  growth,  slow  and 
sure  and  we  must  pray  that  it  should  be  going  always  in  the  same  way. 

Another  feature  of  the  revival  is  the  "living  stone  church"  principle. 
It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  revival  has  taken  the  form,  named  in 
English-speaking  countries  the  Baptist  movement.  The  great  majority 
of  the  newly  established  religious  associations  in  Russia,  although  named 
in  different  ways  (Evangelical  Christians — Baptists,  Evangelical  Chris- 
tians, the  Christian  Baptized  by  Faith  of  the  Gospel  Creed,  etc.)  main- 
tain the  principle  of  constructing  the  church  of  "living  stones,"  of  ad- 
mitting only  conscious  believers  to  the  church  after  they  confessed  their 
conversion  and  have  been  baptized.  We  all,  who  highly  value  this  great 
principle,  have  all  reasons  to  rejoice  and  to  be  thankful  to  God,  who  has 
directed  the  whole  movement  in  such  a  way  that  it  in  its  very  beginning 
has  taken  altogether  scriptural  form. 

We  must  pray  that  it  should  remain  always  of  the  same  chai-acter. 

There  is  still  a  feature  worth  noting. 

While  in  England  I  was  asked  :  ' '  Who  is  the  leader  of  the  movement  1 ' ' 
To  this  I  replied:  "Nobody,  except  Jesus  Christ."  The  condition  of 
things  is  the  same  now. 

It  is  hard  to  trace  in  many  cases  from  where  or  from  whom  the  move- 
ment originated. 

New  churches  are  formed  according  to  the  spreading  of  the  gospel, 
which  is  the  real  agent  of  the  revival.  The  revival  has  not  produced  men 
whom  we  could  name  "leaders."  In  this  sense  the  revival  is  altogether 
democratic  and  we  must  pray  that  it  should  be  always  of  such  a  charac- 
ter that  thereby  the  leadership  of  Christ  may  be  more  effective  in  our 
midst. 

Now  I  would  like  to  say  a  word  on  a  question :  how  to  promote  the  re- 
vival in  Russia. 

God's  Word  distinctly  shows  to  us  several  means  for  promoting  the 
movement,  such  as:  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  (mission),  the  spreading 
of  the  evangelistic  literature  and  especially  the  Scripture  books.  At 
present  the  Bible  in  Russia  is  not  as  cheap  as  it  ought  to  be  and  is  not 
easily  obtainable.  The  right  of  printing  and  selling  the  Scripture  books 
belongs  to  the  Holy  Synod.  The  committee  of  the  Evangelical  Christian 
(open  Baptist)  Union,  inspired  by  the  desire  to  extend  the  spreading  of 
Bibles  and  Scripture  portions  on  the  second  of  May,  ajDplied  to  the  Pro- 
curator of  the  Synod  with  an  epistle  to  the  effect  that  the  Scripture  books 
should  be  made  cheaper,  that  the  Bibles  without  apocrypha,  pocket  Bibles 
and  various  other  editions  suitable  for  various  occasions  should  be  issued. 

In  addition  to  spreading  the  Scripture,  missions  are  to  be  taken  for 
establishing  the  Bible  schools,  institutes,  etc. 

But  before  all,  and  above  all,  the  greatest  of  Christian  weapons  should 
be  applied,  prayer  and  prayer.    This  weapon  is  good  for  all  the  countries. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  441 

Therefore  our  World  Baptist  Alliance  sliould  be  an  alliance  of  prayer.  It 
is  necessary  that  every  member  of  the  Alliance  may  pray  constantly  about 
the  prosperity  of  the  churches  and  all  the  countries  united  in  the  Alliance. 
For  this  it  would  be  very  expedient  to  organize  regular  prayer.  The 
best  way  would  be  if  this  second  World  Congress  fixed  one  day  in  a  year 
on  which  the  members  of  the  Alliance  in  all  the  countries  of  the  world 
may  pray  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  other  branches  of  the  Alliance.  We 
suggest  that  this  day  should  be  the  Thursday  of  the  passion  week,  the 
day^on  which  our  Saviour  prayed:  ''Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray, 
bul  for  them  also  that  believe  on  me  through  their  word  that  they  may 
be  all  one." 


PROVISIONAL   PROGRAM. 


Monday  Evening,   June  19th. 

/.30. — Devotional  Service — F.  W.  Patterson,  Canada. 

EoLL  Call  of  the  Nations. 

NOTE. — Each  speaker  is  allowed  three  minutes,  and  the  delegates 
from  the  country  for  which  he  responds  are  requested  to  rise  with 
him  and  at  the  close  sing  one  verse  of  the  national  anthem  or 
livmn. 

GREAT   BRITAIN  AND   IRELAND.— 

ENGLAND.— W.    Edwards,    Cardiff,    President    of    Baptist    Union 

Great  Britain. 
WALES. — E.  Ungoed  Thomas,   Carmarthen. 
SCOTLAND.— G.   Yuille  Spiling. 

IRELAND. — J.  H.  Boyd,  of  London   (Ont.),  late  of  Bangor,  County 
Down,  Ireland. 

FATTL— L.  Ton  Evans,  Haiti. 

CHILL— S.  M.  Sowell,  Buenos  Ayres. 

CUBA.— M.  N.  McCall,  Havana. 

ARGENTINE.— Paul  Besson,  Buenos  Ayres. 

MEXICO. — J.  G.  Chastain,  Guadalajara. 

CENTRAL   AMERICA.— J.   Hoyter,   Guatemala. 

CHINA.— J.  T.  Proctor,  China. 

INDIA. — Herbert   Anderson,   Calcutta. 

JAMAICA.— P.   Williams,   Bethel  Town. 

CONVENTION  OF  ONTARIO  AND  QUEBEC— C.  J.  Holman,  Tor- 
onto. 

GRANDE  EIGNE  MISSION.— G.  O.  Gates,  Montreal. 

BAPTIST  UNION  OF  WESTERN  CANADA.— D.  B.  Harkness,  Winni- 
peg- 

SOUTH  AFRICA.— Hugo  Gutsche,  King  Williamstown. 

VICTORIA.— A.   Gordon,   Armadale. 

SOUTH  AUSTRALIA.— A.  N.  Marshall,  Adelaide. 

WESTERN  AUSTRALIA.— G.  H.   Cargeeg,  Perth. 

NEW  ZEALAND.— R.  S.  Grav,  Clirist  Church. 

QUEENSLAND    (German   Baptist).— F.  Orthner. 

BAHAMAS.— Mornay  Williams,   New  York. 

BOHEMIA.— J.   Novotny,   Prague. 

BULGARIA.— P.   Bovcheff,   Tchirpan. 

DEN1\L1RK.— P.  Olsen,  Coponliagon. 

ESTHONIA.— Adam  K.  Podin,  Mitau. 

FINLAND.- E.  Jannson,  Wasa. 

FINLAND    (Swedish   Association). — Johann  Inborr,   Forsby  Bennas. 

GERMANY.— J.  G.  Lehmann,  Kassel. 

HOLLAND.— G.  de  Wilde,   Patterson,  New  York. 

FRANCE.— P.  Vincent,  Paris. 

FRAJSrCE    (Franco-Swiss).— A.  Blocher,  Paris. 

ITALY. — Domenico   Scalera,   Rome. 

LITHUANIA.— J.  Inke,   Riga. 

MORAVIA.— N.   F.  Capek,  Brunn. 

NORWAY.— J.  A.  Ohcn,  Kristiania. 

POLAND.— E.   IMohr,   Lodz. 

RUSSIA    (National    Union).— 1.    Golaieir,    Balashov. 

443 


444  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

RUSSIA    (Russo-German). — F.   Brauer,   Warsaw. 

ROUMANIA.— B.   Schlipf,   Bukharest. 

SPAIN.— J.  Uhr,  Valencia. 

SWEDEN.— C.  E.  Benander,  Stockholm. 

SOUTHERN      BAPTIST      CONVENTION      OF      AMERICA.— W.      E. 

Hatcher,  Virginia. 
NORTHERN    BAPTIST    CONVENTION    OF    AMERICA.— Milton    G. 

Evans,  Pennsylvania. 
NATIONAL    BAPTIST    CONVENTION.— C.    H.    Parrish,   Kentucky. 
WEST   INDIES.— 
BRAZIL.— 
JAPAN.— 

GERMAN-AMERICAN.— 
HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN.— 
FINN-AMERICAN.— 
SWEDISH-AMERICAN.— 
MARITIME  PROVINCES.— 
AUSTRIA.— 
HUNGARY.— 

Tuesday  Morning,  June  20tli. 

9.30. — Devotional  Service,  T.  H.  Martin,  Scotland. 

Hymn  209. 

Address. 

Lesson. 

Prayer. 
10.00. — President's  Address,   John   ClifTord,   England. 
11.00. — SuflSeiency   of   the   Gospel. 

1.  For  the  Salvation  of  the  Individual — Claus  Peters,  Germany. 

2.  For  the  Salvation  of  Society — Shailer  Mathevrs,  Illinois. 
Announcement  of  Committees. 

Tuesday  Afternoon,  June  20th. 

2.00. — Mass  Meeting  in  the  interest  of  Young  People's  Work.  Speakers,  W. 
J.  Williamson,  Missouri;  John  MacNeil,  Canada;  F.  B.  Meyer, 
England. 

5.00. — Memorial   Baptist   Church,   Broad   and   Master   streets,  Annual   Busi- 
ness Meeting  of  the  Baptist  Young  People's  Union  of  America. 
Election  of  Officers  and  Board  of  Managers. 

Tuesday  Evening,   June  SOth. 

7.45. — Special  Chairman,  E.  Y.  Mullins,  Kentucky. 

Devotional  Service,  W.  J.  McKay,  Canada. 
8.00.— Vital  Experience  of.  God. 

1.  No  Authoritative  Creed,  J.  Moffatt  Logan,  England. 

2.  Spiritual  Interpretation  of  the  Ordinances,  A.  T.  Robertson,  Ken- 
tucky. 

Wednesday  Morning,  June  21st. 

Special  Chairman,  W.  S.  Shallenberger,  District  of  Columbia. 
9.30. — Devotional  Service,  James  A.  Francis,  Massachusetts. 
Hymn  291. 
Scripture. 
Prayer. 
Hymn  274. 


RECORD  OF  I'ROCEEDINGS.  445 

9.45. — Till-  (liristiiuii/.iiig  of  the  World  in  Noii-C'hristian  Lands. 

Chaiinuiu's  Address,  "The  Open  Door,"   W.  Y.   Fullerton,  England. 

"Co-Operation  in  Foreign  Mission  Fields,"  R.  ].  Willinghaui,  Virginia. 

Public  Resolutions,  Report  of  Committees. 

Alliance  Sermon,  Thomas  Phillips,  England. 

Doxology. 

Benediction. 

Wednesday  Afternoon,  June  21st. 

WOJVIEN'S  MEETING. 

N  OTE. — Special  programs  will  be  distributed. 

Presiding    Officer. — ]SIrs.    A.    G.    Lester,    Chicago,    President    Woman's 
A.  B.  H.  M.  S. 
3.00. — Addresses  by: 

a.  Mrs.   Russell  James,  London,  on   "The  Work  of  Baptist  Wo- 

men  in  the  Home  Churches  of  England." 

b.  Mrs.   Marie   C.   Kerry,   London,   on   "The   Foreign  Missionary 

Work  of  the  British  Baptist  Zenana  Missionary  Society." 
Roll  Call  of  Countries — 

GREAT  BRITAIN.— Mrs.  Scott,  Scotland. 

RUSSIA. — Miss  Fetler,  St.  Petersburg;  C.  Madam  Yasnovsky, 
St.   Petersburg,   Russia. 

BULGARIA.— Mrs.    Doycheflf,    Tchirpan. 

NEW  ZEALAND.— Mrs.  R.  S.  Gray,  Christchurch. 

CANADA. — Mrs.  John  Firstbrook,  Toronto,  President  Woman's 
Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  East. 

NATIONAL  BAPTIST  CONVENTION.— Miss  N.  H.  Burroughs, 
Corresponding  Secretary,  Louisville,   Ky. 

UNHTED  STATES.— Miss  Fannie  E.  S.  Heck,  Raleigh,  N.  C, 
President  Woman's  Missionary  Union,  Auxiliary  to  S.  B.  C. 

ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  AUTUMN  CAMPAIGN.— Miss  Delia  D. 
MacLaurin,  Chicago,  Field  Secretary  Woman's  Baptist  For- 
eign Missionary   Society  of  the  West. 

"Wednesday  Evening,  June  21st. 

7.45. — Special  Chairman,  Herbert  Marnhani,  London. 

Hymn   121. 

Prayer,    D.    ^lerrick    Walker,    Edinburgh,    Scotland. 

Devotional  Service,  Rev.  A.  Ferre,  Gnesta,  Sweden. 
8.00. — The  Christianizing  of  the  World    (continued). 

2.  In  the  Home  Lands. 

(a)  Influence   of   Foreign   Missions   on    the    Home    Field,   J.   H, 
Fanner,    Canada. 

(b)  The  Evangelization  of  the  City,  J.   E.  Roberts,  England. 

(c)  The  Evangelization  of  the  Rural  Districts,  J.  B.  Gambrell, 
Texas. 

(d)  Evangelization   and   tlie    Frontier,   Bruce  Kinney,  Kansas. 

Thursday  Morning,   June  22nd. 

9.30. — Devotional  Service,  A.  Hall,  South  Africa. 
Hymn  280. 
Scripture. 
Prayer. 
Hymn  zHH. 
10.00.— Special   Chairman,   F.   B.   Meyer,   England. 


446  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

"The  Christianizing  of  the  World — Eastern  Europe." 

Introductory  Address,  H.  Newton  Marshall,  London. 

Hungary — A.  Udvarnoki,  Budapest. 

Moravia  and  Bohemia — N.   Capek,  Brunn. 

Address,  C.  T.  Byford,   England. 

Russia — V.   Pavloff,   Odessa. 

Introduction  of  Russian  Exiles,  J.  H.  Shakespeare,  London. 

Address,  A.  J.  Vining,  Ontario. 

"The  Proposed  European  College,"  F.  B.  Meyer. 

Doxology. 

Benediction. 

Thursday  Afternoon,  Jvme  22nd. 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary  invites  the  delegates  and  visitors  to  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance  to  a  Garden  Party  on  the  beautiful  campus  at  Upland, 
Chester. 

Thursday  Evening,  June  22nd. 

7.45. — Special   Chairman,   R.   S.  MacArthur,  New  York. 
Devotional   Service,   F.   J.   Wilkins,  Australia. 
Hymn  249. 
Scripture. 
Prayer. 
Hymn  219. 

"The  Christianizing  of  the  World"   (continued). 
3.  On  the  Continent  of  Europe   (continued). 

Germany — J.  G.  Lehmann,  Kassel. 

Italy — Domenico  Scalera,  Naples. 

Sweden — C.   E.   Benander,   Stockholm. 

Friday  Morning,  June  23rd. 

9.30. — Special  Chairman,  Sir.  George  MacAlpine,  England. 

Devotional  Service,  C.  T.  Walker,  Georgia. 

Hymn  140. 

Scripture. 

Prayer. 

Hymn  250. 

Report  of  Nomination  Committee. 
9.45. — The  Christianizing  of  the  World    (continued). 
4.  Special  Phases  of  the  Work. 

(a)    Woman's  Work,  Mrs.  Andrew  MacLeish,  Illinois. 

(b)  Medical  Missions,   C.  E.  Wilson,  England. 

(c)  Tlie  Negro  Work  for  the  Negro,  E.  C.  Morris,  Arkansas. 

(d)  Laymen  and  Missions,  A.  P.  McDiarmid,  Canada. 

(e)  Training    the    Young    in    Missionary    Endeavor,    George    B. 
Cutten,  Canada. 

Friday  Afternoon,  June  23rd. 

2.00. — Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  John  Wanamaker,  a  concert  will  be  given 
to  delegates  and  visitors  in  Egyptian  Hall  in  the  Wanamaker  store. 
The  party  will  be  conducted  through  the  most  interesting  parts  of 
the  store,  through  the  vaults,  and  to  the  roof,  where  a  fine  view  of 
the  city  may  be  obtained.  Sufficient  time  will  be  allowed  to  reach 
the  Botanical  Gardens  for  the  reception. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  447 

4.00. — At  the  invitation  of  the  Woman's  Committee  a  reception  will  be 
tendered  the  delegates  and  visitors  to  the  Alliance  at  the  Botanical 
Gardens  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  which  have  been  se- 
cured through  the  courtesy  of  Provost  Smith.  Mayor  Reyburn,  Pro- 
vost Smith  and  other  distinguished  persons  will  assist  in  receiving. 
Through  the  kindness  of  His  Honor,  the  Mayor,  the  Municipal  Band 
of  Phihidelphia  will  be  in  attendance.  There  will  be  a  procession  of 
a  hundred  and  fifty  young  ladies  bearing  the  colors  of  all  nations; 
thej'  will  also  assist  in  serving. 
Because  of  the  magnitude  of  this  reception  it  will  be  necessary  to  admit 
by  card  of  invitation  to  be  presented  at  the  entrance  to  the  Gardens, 
Thirty-seventh  and  Spruce  streets.  If,  for  any  reason  an  invitation 
has  not  been  received  by  a  delegate  or  a  visitor,  an  application  should 
be   made   at   Registration   Bureau. 

Friday  Evening,  June  23rd. 

7.45. — Special  Chairman,  E.  W.  Stephens,  Missouri. 

Devotional   Service,   B.   L.   Whitman,   Washington. 

Hymn  268. 

Scripture. 

Prayer. 

Hymn  222. 
8.00.— The  Spirit  of   Brotherhood. 

1.  In  the  Church. 

(a)  Individualism  a  Basis  of  Church  Organization,  J.  H.  Rush- 
brooke,   England. 

(b)  Limits  of  Individualism  in  the  Church,  R.  H.  Pitt,  Virginia. 

2.  In  the  State. 

(a)  Baptist  Polity  and  Good   Citizenship,  Booker  T.   Washing- 
ton, Alabama. 

(b)  Baptist  Polity  and  International  Brotherhood,  J.  T.  Forbes, 
Scotland. 

Saturday  Morning,  June  24tli. 

9.30.— Special  Chairman— W.  T.  Whitley. 

Devotional  Service — J.  M.  Frost,  Tennessee. 

Hymns  271,  253. 
9.45. — The   Church   and   Education. 

1.  Through   the   Sunday   School — H.   T.   Musselman,   Pennsylvania. 

2.  Through  the  Family — F.  Goldsmith  French,  England. 

3.  Through    Schools,    Colleges,    Seminaries — E.    M.    Poteat,    South 
Carolina. 

Election  of  OflBcers. 

Saturday  Afternoon,  June  24th. 

.Sectional  Meetings. 

Russians — Fourth  Baptist  Church,  Fifth  and  Buttonwood  streets,  6  P.  M. 
Swedes — Old  Swedes'  Church,  Swanson  below  Christian  street,  3  P.  M. 
Germans — Second   German  Baptist  Church,  North   Hancock,  near   Dauphin 

street,  8  P.  M. 
English — Memorial  Baptist  Church,  Broad  and  Master  streets,  2  P.  M. 

Saturday  Evening,   June  24th. 

7.45. — Special  Chairman — President-elect. 

Devotional  Service — W.  W.  B.  Emory,  England. 


448  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

Hymns  270,  236. 
8.00. — The  Church  and  Industrialism. 

1.  The  Church  and   the  Working  Man — R.   S.   Gray,  New  Zealand. 

2.  The    Church    and    the    Working    Woman — Frank    M.    Goodchild, 

New  York. 

3.  The  Church  and  Social  Crisis — Walter  Rauschenbusch,  New  York. 

Sunday  Morning,  June  25tlL. 

11.00. — Alliance  Sunday. 

The  Lordship  of  Jesus — E.  Y.  Mullins,  Kentucky. 
The  "Baptist  Day"   program   will   be   used  by   churches   and   Sunday 
Schools  throughout  the  world. 

Sunday  Afternoon,   June   25tli. 

3.30. — Special  Chairman — John  Haslam,  England. 

Devotional  Service — Madame  Yasnovsky,  Russia. 
3.45. — Consecration  Service. 

Speakers : 

1.  P.  T.  Thompson,  England. 

2.  M.  P.  Fikes,   Michigan. 

3.  Len  G.   Broughton,   Georgia. 
Sectional  Meetings: 

Hungarians — Second    Baptist   Church,    North    Seventh    street,   near 

Girard  avenue. 
Lettish — Mantua  Baptist  Church,  North  Fortieth  street,  3  P.  M. 
Colored — Zion    Baptist    Church,    North    Thirteenth    near    Wallace 

street,   3   P.  M. 

Sunday  Evening,  June  25tli. 

7.45. — Presiding — John  Clifford,  England. 

Devotional    Service — Henry    Alford   Porter,    Kentucky. 

Hymns  255,  308. 
8.15. — Baptists  and  the  Coming  of  the  Kingdom. 

1.  In  Non-Christian   Lands — John  Humpstone,  New  York. 

2.  In  Europe — J.  W.  Young,  England. 

3.  In  America — George  W.  Truett,  Texas. 

Adjournment  of  the  Second  Congress  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance. 


SUNDAY  SCHOOL  PROGRAM 

For  Baptist  Day,  June  25th,  1911 


Order  of  Se^rvice. 
suggested  for  use  throughout  the  baptist  sunday  schools  of  the  world. 


Hymn. 


'Onward   Christian    Soldiers." 


Onward,  Christian  soldiers, 

Marching  as  to  war, 
With  the  cross  of  Jesus, 

Going  on  before. 
Christ,  the  royal  Master, 

Leads  against  the   foe; 
Forward  into  battle. 

See,  his  banners  go. 


Crowns  and  tlirones  may  perish. 

Kingdoms    rise   and   wane. 
But  the  church  of  Jesus 

Constant  will  remain; 
Gates   of    hell   can    never 

'Gainst  that  church  prevail; 
We  have  Christ's  own  promise. 

And  that  cannot  fail. 


Refrain. 


Onward,   Christian   soldiers, 
]\Iarching  as  to  war, 

With  the  cross  of  Jesus, 
Going  on  before. 


Like  a  mighty  army, 

Moves  tlie  church  of  God; 
Brothers,  we  are  treading 

Where  the   saints   have   trod; 

We  are  not  divided. 

All  one  body   we, 
One  in  hope  and  aoctrine. 

One  in  charity. 

All  join  in  The  Lord's  Prayer. 
Responsive  Reading   (All  Standing). 

LEADER. 

1.  I  will  extol  thee,  my  God,  O 
King;  and  I  will  bless  thy 
name  for  ever  and  ever. 

3.  Great  is  the  Lord,  and  greatly 
to  be  praised;  and  his  great- 
ness  is  unsearchable. 

5.  I  will  speak  of  the  glorious 
honour  of  tliy  majesty,  and  of 
thy  wondrous  works. 

7.  They  sliall  abundantly  utter  the 
memory  of  thy  great  goodness, 
and  shall  sing  of  thy  right- 
eousness. 

449 


Onward,  then,  ye  people, 
Join  our  happj'  throng, 

Blend  with  ours  your  voicejs 
In   the   triumpli-song; 

Glory,  laud,  and  honor. 
Unto  Christ  the  King; 

This   through   countless   ages, 

Men  and  angels  sing. 


Psalm  cxlv:   1-16. 

scholars. 

Every  day  will  I  bless  thee;  and 
I  will  praise  thy  name  for  ever 
and  ever. 

One  generation  shall  praise  thy 
works  to  another,  and  shall 
declare   thy   mighty   acts. 

And  men  shall  speak  of  the 
might  of  thy  terrible  acts;  and 
I    will   declare   thy  greatness. 

The  Lord  is  gracious,  and  full 
of  compassion;  slow  to  anger, 
iiiKJ   of  gi-cat    mercy. 


450  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 

LEADEE.  SCHOLARS. 

9.     The  Lord  is  good  to  all;  and  his       10.     All  thy  works  shall  praise  thee, 
tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  0  Lord;   and  thy  saints  shall 

works.  bless  thee. 

11.     They  shall  speak  of  the  glory  of       12.     To   make  known  to   the   sons   of 
thy  kingdom,  and  talk  of  thy  men  his  mighty  acts,  and  the 

power;  glorious   majesty  of  his  king- 

dom. 

13.     Thy   kingdom   is   an   everlasting  14.     The  Lord  upholdeth  all  that  fall, 

kingdom,     and    thy     dominion  and  raiseth  up   all   tliose   that 

endureth   throughout   all   gen-  fee  bowed  down, 
erations. 

15.     The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  thee;  16.     Thou    openest    thine    hand,    and 

and    thou    givest    them    their  satisfiest    the    desire   of   every 

meat  in  due  season.  living  thing. 

In  unison,  Leader  and  School  read  verse  21: — 

"My  mouth  shall  speak  the  Praise  of  the  Lord,  and  let  all 
flesh  bless  His  Holy  Name  for  ever  and  ever." 

Hymn.  "Now  Thank  We  All  Our  God." 

Now  thank  we  all  our  God  Oh,  may  this  bounteous  God 

With  hearts  and  hands  and  voices.  Through  all  our  life  be  near  us. 

Who  wondrous  things  hath  done  With  ever  joyful  hearts 

In  whom  the  world  rejoices;  And  blessed  peace  to  cheer  us. 

Who   from   our   Mothers'   arms  And  help  us   in  His  grace 

Hath  blessed  us  on  our  way.  And  guide  us  when  perplexed. 

With  countless  gifts  of  love  And  free  us  from  all  ills 

And  still  is  ours  to-day.  In  this  world  and  the  next. 

All  praise  and  thanks  to  God 
The  Father,  now  be  given, 
The  Son,  and  him  who  reigns 
With  them  in  highest  heaven, 
The  One  Eternal  God, 
Whom  earth  and  heaven  adore; 
For  thus  it  was,  is  now. 
And  shall  be  evermore. 

(It  is  suggested  that  the  School  should  remain  standing.) 

Leader. — This  day  is  set  apart  in  all  Baptist  churches  and  Sunday-schools 
throughout  the  world,  to  celebrate  the  meeting  of  the  Baptist  World  Alliance 
in  Philadelphia,  and  for  remembering  in  prayer.  Baptists  throughout  the 
world.  Will  you  tell  me  how  many  Baptists  there  are,  so  far  as  they  can  be 
enumerated  ? 

Answer. — There  are  65,048  Baptist  churches,  6,715,211  members  and 
3,567,116  scholars. 

Leader. — Where  are  Baptists  to  be  found? 

Ansioer. — In  all  parts  of  the  world:  in  great  cities,  in  villages  and  in  the 
country:  in  Christian  and  in  heathen  lands. 

Leader. — From  what  classes  are  the  Baptists  drawn? 

Ansioer. — From  every  class,  rich  and  poor;  learned  and  ignorant;  states- 
men and  peasants.  In  England,  America,  Australia,  and  South  Africa  many 
notable  and  prominent  men  are  Baptists.  In  Central  Europe,  however,  the 
Baptists  are  chiefly,  but  not  entirely,  drawn  from  the  peasant  class. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  451 

Leader. — Let  us  pray  for  our  Brethren  and  Sisters  throughout  the  world. 
(Prayer  may  be  offered  by  tlie  leader  or  some  one  whom  he  may  designate.) 

Leader. — What  do  we  mean  by  the  Baptist  World  Alliance? 

Answer. — It  is  a  union  of  all  Baptists  tlirougliout  the  world,  in  the  bonds 
of  Christian  love  and  for  the  coming  of  our  Saviour's  Kingdom. 

Leader. — What  objects  does  the  Baptist  World  Alliance  serve? 

Answei: — It  combines  people  of  difl'erent  countries  and  languages  in  one 
great  family;  unites  those  who  need  help  with  tliose  who  can  give  it;  enables 
us  to  do  together  more  than  we  could  do  alone;  and  maintains  before  the 
world  the  simplicity  and  beauty  of  Believer's  Baptism. 

Leader. — What   is  Believer's  Baptism? 

Answer. — It  is  immersion  in  water  and  into  the  Name  of  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holj'  Ghost,  of  those  who  have  repented  of  their  sins  and  believed  in 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Leadei: — In  what  does  Believer's  Baptism  difi'er  from  that  practiced  by 
other  Christians? 

Answer. — The  chief  difference  is  that  other  churches  baptize  infants,  while 
we  believe  tliat  only  those  should  be  baptized  who  are  able  to  think  and  act 
and  believe  for  themselves.  Many  churches  also  think  it  sufficient  to  sprinkle 
or  pour  a  few  drops  of  water  on  those  to  be  baptized;  Baptists  believe  that 
the  whole  body  should  be  buried  in  water. 

Leader. — On  what  do  these  beliefs  rest? 

Answer. — On  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament,  which  is  our  sole 
guide  in  matters  of  Christian  Faith  and  Practice.      (Matthew  28:   18). 

Leadei: — What  does  the  New  Testament  say  in  the  matter? 

Answer. — The  New  Testament  says  tiiat  when  our  Lord  was  grown  to 
years,  He  went  down  into  the  river  Jordan,  and  was  baptized.  (Matthew 
3:    13-17.) 

Leader. — What  more   does   it  say? 

Answer. — It  says  that  before  He  went  back  to  Heaven,  He  commanded 
His  followers  to  go  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into 
the  Name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Giiost.  (Matthew 
28:    18-20.) 

Leader. — What  evidence  is  there  that  Christ's  command  was  acted  upon? 

Answer. — On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  3,000  people  repented,  believed,  and 
were  baptized.  'Jhe  eunuch,  after  hearing  Philip's  words  about  .Jesus,  was  bap- 
tized by  him.  The  gaoler  and  his  household  having  heard  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  and  having  believed,  were  baptized  by  Paul  in  prison;  and  there  were 
many  more.      (Acts  2:37-41;  9:  2C-38.) 

Leader. — Does  Baptism  save  us? 

Answer. — No,  we  are  saved  by  faith,  and  by  faith  alone,  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.    "Whosoever  believeth  in  Him  hatii  Eternal  Life."     (John  3:  3G.) 

Leader. — Why,  then,  should  we  be  baptized? 

Ansioer. — We  should  be  baptized  as  an  act  of  obedience  to  our  Lord  and 
Saviour;  as  a  confession  that  we  should  die  to  sin  and  walk  in  newness  of 
life;  and  as  a  witness  to  the  world  that  Jesus  once  lived  among  men,  died  and 
rose  again  from  tlie  grave. 

Leader. — What  should  be  our  attitude  toward  those  who  do  not  agree 
with  us  in  this  matter? 

Answer. — We  must  not  judge  them  harshly,  or  think  that  we  are  better 
than  they;  but  should  reason  with  them  and  help  them  to  understand  the 
teaching  of  the  New  IVstament.  Though  they  do  not  agree  with  us,  we  must 
say  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  "Grace  be  with  ail  them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  sinceritv." 


452 


THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


Leader. — What  have  Baptists  stood  for  in  the  history  of  Christianity? 

Answer. — They  have  alvpays  stood  for  Liberty  of  Conscience,  for  the  sever- 
ance of  Church  and  State,  and  for  the  right  to  pray  to  God  and  read  the 
Bible,  without  the  help  of  a  priest. 

Leader. — Name   some  well-known   Baptists? 

Answer. — Bunyan,  the  author  of  Pilgrim's  Progress;  Spurgeon,  the  great 
preacher  and  writer;  Carey,  the  pioneer  Missionary  to  India;  and  Judson,  the 
Apostle  of  Burma. 

(Here  tJve  Leader  should  recall  others,  who  are  specially  familiar  in  any 
country  where  this  service  is  used.) 

Leader. — Where  is  the  help  of  our  Baptist  churches  most  needed  at  the 
present  time? 

Answer. — In  addition  to  the  work  in  heathen  lands,  ovir  help  in  money  is 
most  needed  among  the  poor  Baptists  of  Moravia,  Bohemia  and  Bulgaria; 
and  also  for  the  training  of  ministers  and  evangelists  for  the  work  in  Russia 
and  Hungary. 

Leader. — Have  those  people  suffered  much  for  their  faith? 

Ansicei: — In  every  country  mentioned,  fines,  scourgings,  imprisonments. 
The  strain  is  less  to-day  in  Hungary,  but  severe  in  many  parts  of  Russia,  and 
felt  in  many  ways  in  other  parts  of  Europe. 

Leader. — How  can  we  help  them? 

Ansiver. — We  may  help  them  by  our  sympathy,  our  prayers,  and  our  gifts. 

Leader.— Yes,  it  is  quite  true,  and  we  will  now  take  up  a  collection  on 
their  behalf.  All  the  money  given  to-day,  not  only  in  our  school,  but  through- 
out the  world,  will  be  sent  to  Baptist  work  in  Eastern  Europe.  (Collection 
taken  in  the  United  States  will  be  forwarded  to  the  Hon.  E.  W.  Stephens, 
Columbia,  Misssouri,  U.  S.  A.,  and  those  taken  outside  of  the  United  States 
to  be  forwarded  to  Rev.  J.  H.  Shakespeare,  M.  A.,  Baptist  Church  House, 
No.  4  Southampton  Row,  London.) 


Hymn. 


"I  Love  to  Tell  the  Story  of  Unseen  Things  Above. 


I  love  to  tell  the  story 

Of  unseen  things  above. 
Of  Jesus  and  His  glory. 

Of  Jesus  and  His  love. 
I  love  to  tell  the  story, 

Because  I  know  it's  true; 
It  satisfies  my  longings 

As  nothing  else  will  do. 


I  love  to  tell  the  story; 

'Tis   pleasant   to   repeat 
What  seems,  each  time  I  tell  it. 

More  wonderfully  sweet. 
I  love  to  tell  the  story, 

For  some  have  never  heard 
The  message  of  salvation 

From  God's  own  holy  word. 


I  love  to  tell  the  story, 

'Twill  be  my  theme  in  glorv, 

To  tell  the  old,  old  story 
Of  Jesus  and  His  love. 


I  love  to  tell  the  story; 

More  wonderful  it  seems 
Than  all  the  golden  fancies 

Of  all  our  golden  dreams. 
I  love  to  tell  the  story. 

It  did  so  much  for  me! 
And  that  is  just  the  reason 

I  tell  it  now  to  thee. 


I  love  to  tell  the  story; 

For  those  who  know  it  best 
Seem   hungering  and  thirsting 

To  hear  it  like  the  rest. 
And  when  in  scenes  of  glory 

I  sing  the  New,  New  Song, 
'Twill  be  the  Old,  Old  Story 

That  I  have  loved  so  long. 


RECORD  OF  PROCEEDINGS.  453 

It  is  suggested  that,  in  the  place  of  regular  class  teaching,  the  Leader,  or 
some  other  suitahle  person  should  here  give  an  address,  not  exceeding  fifteen 
minutes  in  length,  ivhich  might  deal  with  such  topics  as  the  following: 

Baptism  in   the  Primitive  Church; 

The  Evidence  of  the  Ancient  Baptisteries; 

Remarkable  Converts; 

Baptist  Martyrs; 

Growing  Unity; 

Our  Leaders; 

Our  Future; 

Reliance  on  the  Bible  and  Exclusion  of  Traditions; 

The  Rights  of  Individual  Conscience; 

The  Unbroken  Succession  of  Baptist  Testimony; 

Baptist  Literature,  Preachers,  Missionaries; 

The  Great  Advance  of  Baptist  Principles  in  Eastern  Europe; 

The  Wealth  of  our  Baptist  Inheritance; 

The  Urgency  of  Submission  to  the  Claims  and  Commands  of  Christ. 

The  Closing  Pkayeb.    By  the  Pastor. 

The  Closing  Hymn.  "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name." 

All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name!  Sinners,  whose  love  can  ne'er  forget 
Let  angels  prostrate  fall;  The  wormwood  and  the  gall; 

Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem,  Go,  spread  your  trophies  at  his  feet, 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all.  And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

Crown  him,  ye  martyrs  of  our  God,  Let  every  kindred,  every  tribe, 
\Vlio  from  his  altar  call;  On  this  terrestrial  ball, 

Extol  the  stem  of  Jesse's  rod.  To  him   all  majesty  ascribe, 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all.  And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

Ye  chosen  seed  of  Israel's  race.  Oh,  that  with  yonder  sacred  throng. 

Ye  ransomed  from  the  fall;  We  at  his  feet  may  fall! 

Hail  him  who  saves  you  by  his  grace,  W^e'll  join  the  everlasting  song. 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all.  And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

Benediction. 


On  Sunday  morning,  June  25th,  Dr.  E.  Y.  Mullins  will  preach  in  the 
Baptist  Temple,  Philadelphia.  His  theme  will  be  "The  Lordship  of  Jesus," 
based  on  Acts  ii:  36.  The  key-note  of  the  whole  service  will  be  the  supremacy 
of  our  Lord.  It  is  suggested  that  throughout  the  world  the  morning  service 
be  of  the  same  general  character  so  that  in  this  too,  we  may  have  the  "unity 
of  the  Spirit." 


INDEX. 


By  Mabel  H.  Seymour. 


Alliance,  the  Baptist  World:  its 
badge,  vii;  local  committees  of 
vii-xii;  its  constitution,  xiii;  its 
officers  and   committees,  xv,  xvi. 

Amendment,  Suggested,  to  Constitu- 
tion        332 

Anderson,  Herbert,  his  response  at 
Roll   Call,   India    33 

Baptist  Day,   Program    448 

Batten,   S.  Z.,  presents  resolution  on 

Social  Progress   333 

Benander,  C.  E. :  his  response  at  Roll 

Call,  Sweden,  4G;  address  by 

257-262 

Bengough,  Elven    88 

Berlin:    Alliance   invited   to  meet   in, 

307 ;     Alliance     accepts     invitation 

to    307 

Besson,  Paul,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,    Argentina     31 

Boyd,  J.  H.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 
Ireland    28 

Brauer,  F.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 
Russo-German  Union    43 

Brazilian  Convention,  greetings  and 
invitation  from    332 

Brougliton,  Len  G. :  remarks  by,  354 ; 
address    by    405-413 

Burroughs,  Miss  N.  H 179 

Bvford,  Rev.  C.  T.,  address  bv 

'228-230 

Capek,    Norbert   F. :    his   response   at. 

Roll    Call,    Moravia,    39;     address 

by     223-228 

Capira,    Juan,    his    response    at    Roll 

Call,    Porto    Rico    49 

Cargeeg,   George   H.,   his   response   at 

Roll  Call,  Western  Australia.  36 
Carroll,  H.  K.,  address  by  ..185-188 
Chandler,  Mr.,  remarks  by  ....  357 
Chastain,  J.  G.,  his  response  at  Roll 

Call,   Mexico    30 

Christian   Unity,  cxfcutive  committee 

reports  on    413,  414 

455 


Clark,  Joseph  L.,  elected  member  of 
executive   committee    333 

Clifford,  John:  introduced,  14;  ad- 
dress by,  14-19;  presiding  at  Roll 
Call,  26;  presidential  address  by, 
53-70;  other  remarks  by,  71,  130, 
262,  305;   presiding, 

357,  372,  413,  414,  431 

Committees,  Local,  vii-xii;  Alli- 
ance      xv-xvi 

Congress,  Second  Australasian  Bap- 
tist, greetings  from    134 

Constitution  of  the  Baptist  World 
Alliance  given,  xiii;  committee  ap- 
pointed to  deal  with  questions  re- 
lating to,  203;  report  of  commit- 
tee on  changes  in  332 

Conwell,  Russell  H. :  address  by,  2; 
introducing  speakers,  9,  11,  14,  19, 
20;  makes  a  motion   243 

Crandall,  L.  A. :  presents  report  of 
committee  on  changes  in  Constitu- 
tion, 332,  333 ;  reports  for  commit- 
tee on  resolutions   336 

Cutten,  George  B.,  address  by  298-302 

Doycheff,  Peter,  his  response  at  Roll 

Call,  Bulgaria   40 

Doyclieff,  Mrs.  Peter    177 

Emery,  W.  W.  B.,  conducted  devo- 
tional exercises    357 

Evans,  L.  Ton,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,  Haiti    28 

Evans,  Milton  G.,  responds  at  Roll 
Call  for  Northern  Baptist  Con- 
vention of  the  United  States. .     48 

Ewing,  J.  W. :  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,   England,   26;    address  bv 

416-421 

Farmer,  J.  H.,  address  by  .  .  189-196 
Ferris,  George  H.,  address  by  .  5-9 
Fetler,  William,  address  by    . .    19-25 

Fetler,    Mmlle 176 

Fikea,  Maurice  P.,  address  by  400-405 
First  brook,    Mrs.    John    179 


456 


THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


Forbes,  J.  T.,  address  by 326-331 

Foreword,  by  Philip  L.  Jones  . .   v,  vi 
Francis,    James    A.,    conducted    devo- 
tional exercises    125 

French,  F.  Goldsmith,   address  by 

342-349 
Fullerton,  W.  Y.,  address  by  135-143 

Gambrell,  J.  B.,  address  by  .   203-207 
Gates,  G.  O.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

Grand   Ligne   Mission    33 

German  Baptist  Union,  invites  Alli- 
ance to  Berlin   307 

Gilmour,  J.  L.,  address  by   .  .  .   90-95 
Goodchild,  Frank  M.,  address  by 

366-372 

Gordon,  A.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

Victoria,    Australia    35 

Golayeff,  E.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

Russia   (National  Union)    ....      42 
Gray,  R.  S. :  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

New  Zealand,  37;   address  by 

359-366 

Gray,  Mrs.  R.  S 178 

Gutsche,   Hugo,  his   response   at  Roll 

Call,    South    Africa    34 

Gwynne,  Mrs.,  remarks  by   355 

Hall,  Rev.  Alfred,  conducted  devo- 
tional   exercises    215 

Haslam,  J.  Henry:  introducing  pre- 
siding officer,  1,  266;  his  Godspeed 
message     429-431 

Haslam,  John:  conducted  devotional 
services,  377 ;  address  by,  392-395 ; 
introducing  speakers  395,  400,  405 

Hatcher,  W.  E.,  responds  at  Roll  Call 
for  Southern  Baptist  Convention  of 
United  States    47,  244 

Hayter,  James,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,  Central  America   30 

Heck,  Miss  Fannie  E.  S.,  address 
by    181 

Holman,  Charles  J.,  his  response  at 
Roll   Call,    Canada    32 

Howard,  G.  P.,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,  National  Baptist  Conven- 
tion   ( Negro )    5 

Humpstone,  John,  delivered  an  ad- 
dress       416 

Hunter,   Robert,   address  by   129,   130 

Tvig.a,r.  ,   his   response  at  Roll 

Call     42 


Inke,  J.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 
Letonia     45 

International  Sunday-school  Conven- 
tion greetings  sent  to    188 

James,  Mrs.  Russell,  address  by 

167-171 
Jannsen,  E.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

{ Finnish    Conference)     41 

Jones,  Philip  L.,  Foreword  by.   v,  vi 

Kawaguchi,    A.    U.,    his    response    at 

Roll  Call,  Japan    46 

Kerry,  Mrs.  M.  C,  address  by  161-166 

King  George  and  Queen  Mary:   mes- 
sage to,  149;   reply  to  message,  266 
Kinney,  Bruce,  Address  by   .   207-214 

Lehmann,  J.  G. :  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,  Germany  44;  address  by 

247-253 

Lester  Mrs.  A.  G.,  presiding   .  .  .    160 
Levering,    Hon.    Joshua,    response    to 

Dr.  Clifford's  address 70 

Logan,  J.  Mofi'at,  address  by  111-120 

MacArthur,  R.  S.:  presiding,  243;  re- 
sponds to  election,  246,  263;  intro- 
ducing speakers  267,  268;  other  re- 
marks  by    353 

Macalpine,    Sir    George    W.:    address 
by,  268;   introducing  speakers 
270,  276,  286,  290,  298,  302,  305,  306 

MacLaurin,  Miss  Ella  D 183 

MacLeish.  Mrs.  Andrew,  mentioned, 
160;  address  by   270-276 

McConnell,  F.  C:  mentioned,  88,  99, 
266;  devotional  exercises  conducted 
by    413 

McDiarmid,  A.  P.,  address  by  290-298 

McKay,  W.  J.,  conducted  devotional 
exercises     108 

Marnham,  Herbert,  presiding,  185; 
address  by    188 

Marnham,  Mrs.  Herbert   171 

Marshall,  A.  N.,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,   South  Australia    35 

Marshall,  Newton  H.,  address  by 

216-219 

Martin,    T.   H.,    conducted   devotional 

service    ^^ 

Mathews,  Shailer,  address  by   .   81-88 


liKcoitn  OF  i'if<)ci:i:r)ixGS. 


457 


.Mclir.  K.,  liis  response  at  Koll  Call. 
Poland    43 

:Mever,  F.  15.:  address  bv.  i)!»-108:  pre- 
siding, 215,  219,  228,*230,  2:54,  242; 
ai)j)ealin<i;  for  funds  for  European 
University,  203,  205;  elected  mem- 
ber of  executive  committee    .  .  .    333 

Million,  John  ^^'.,  remarks  by   .  .   355 

Molina,  Mrs.,  her  response  at  Roll 
Call,    Cuba    29 

Morris,  E.  C,  address  by   ...   286-290 

^Mullins,  E.  Y. :  address  by.  108;  reads 
coninuinication  from  Southern  Jiap- 
tist  Convention,  302;  remarks  by, 
304;  sermon  by 377-392 

Musselman,  H.  T.,  address  by  337-342 

National  liaptist  Convention  of  the 
United  States  (Colored),  its  re- 
sponse  at  Roll  Call    50 

National  Free  Church  Council,  greet- 
ings   from    133 

Nominations,  report  of  committee 
on 243 

Northern  Baptist  Convention  of  the 
United  States,  its  response  at  Roll 
Call     48 

Novotny,  .J.,  iiis  response  at  Roll  Call, 
Bohemia    38 

Officers,    Alliance     xv 

Ohrn,  J.  A.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call. 

Norway    46 

Olseii,   T..   his   response   at   Roll   Call. 

Denmark    40 

Falerson.  F.  \V-,  conducted  devotional 

service    25 

Pavloff,  v.,  address  by 233-234 

Peters,  Glaus,  address  by   72-81 

Phillips,     Thomas,     Alliance     sermon 

by    150-160 

Pitt,  R.  H.,  addr.'ss  by    313-319 

Podkin,    A.    K..    his    response   at   Roll 

Call     41 

Porter,    S.    •!.,    conducted    devotionaj 

service    ^'  ' 

Potcat,  E.  M.,  address  by  .  .  349-353 
Prestridge,  J.  N. :  mentioned.  70,  133; 
reads  paper  relating  to  Euroju-an 
Baptist  College,  204;  remarks  and 
suggestions  by.  266.  304.  307.  332, 
SsT;  announces  committees,  357, 
416-  presents  resolution  of  thanks, 
'   '  431 


Program,  Provisional,  442-447;  Bap- 
tist   Day    448 

Prokhanoll',  J.  S.,  address  by  439-441 

Rauselicnbusch,    Walter,    address    bv 

372-376 

Hay,   T.   B.,   conducted   devotional  e.x- 

ercises    332 

Reception:  at  Crozer  Theological  Sem- 
inary, 242;  at  University  Botanical 

Gardens     306 

Resolutions:  on  Young  People's  or- 
ganization, 89;  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  148;  on  the 
Coronation  of  King  George  V.,  149; 
regarding  peace,  149;  concerning 
Euroi)ean  University,  265;  on  So- 
cial Progress,  333,  336 ;  of  thanks 

431 
Reyburn,     Mavor     John     E.,     address 

by ■ 10,  11 

Robinson,   Mrs.    Carrie    160 

Roberts,  J.  E.,  address  by    .    196-203 
Roberts,      William      Henrj',      address 

by    127-129 

Robertson,  A.  T.,  address  by  120-124 

Roll   Call  of  Nations    26-52 

Rushbrooke,  J.  H.,  address  by  308-313 
Russian   Delegation,    introduced 

237,  238 

Saillens,  R.,  address  by   ....   435-438 

Scalero,    Dominico,    his    response    at 

Roll  Call,  Italy,  45;   address  bv 

253-257 
Schlipf,  B.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

Roumania    47 

Scott,  Mrs.   D.   M 175 

Seymour,  Mabel  H.,  Index  by   .  .   455 
Shakespeare,  J.  H. ;    introducing  Rus- 
sian   delegation,    234-238;    presents 
report    on     Christian     Unity,     413, 
414;      speaks      on      resolution      of 

thanks    431-434 

Shallenberger,  W.  S. :  introducing 
speakers,  127,  129,  130,  134;  ad- 
dress by    131-133 

Simoleit,   A.    M.,    invites   Alliance   to 

Berlin    307 

Smith,    Howard    Wayne:     introduced, 

19;    asks  for  definition    333 

Social   Progress,  resolution  on    .  .    333 

Southern    Baptist   Convention    of   the 

United  States:   its  response  at  Roll 


458 


THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  ALLIANCE. 


Call,  47;  its  action  regarding 
European  College,  266;  its  commu- 
nication  to   Alliance    302 

Sowell,  S.  M.,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,    Chili    31 

Stackliouse,  W.  T.,  presents  report  of 
Committee  on  Nominations    .  .    244 

Stephens,  E.  W. :  presiding,  306,  307; 
address  by,  307;  introducing  speak- 
ers    342,  349,  353 

Stevens,  W.  J.,  called  to  preside  243 

Strong,  Augustus  H.,  address  by 

11-14 

Swedish  Baptist  Conference,  greet- 
ings from    332 

Taft,  William  H.,  President  of  the 
United  States:  congratulations  sent 
to,  25;  resolution  sent  to,  148;  re- 
sponse from   357,  358 

Taylor,  ,  his  response   at  Roll 

Call,   Brazil    49 

Thomas,  E.  U.,  his  response  at  Roll 
Call,    Wales    26 

Thomson,  P.  T.,  address  by   .   396-400 

Truett,  George  W.,  addresses  by 

95-99,  421-429 

Udvarnoki,  A.,  address  by   .  .   220-223 

Uhre,  J.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 
Spain    47 

University,  European  Baptist:  sub- 
scriptions taken  for,  242;  commu- 
nication regarding,  264;  resolution 
relating   to    265 

Upshaw,  William  D.,  remarks  by  354 

Unoccupied  Mission  Felds:   communi- 
cation   regarding,    302;    committee 
•     on    416 


Vautier,   A.   H 88 

Vincent,  P.,  his  response  at  Roll  Call, 

France    44 

Vining,  A.  J.,  address  by   .  .    239-242 

Wallace,   O.  C.   S.,  presiding    ...      88 

Walker,  D.  Merrick,  prayer  by   .    185 

Walker,  Robert,  translates  Italian  ad- 
dresses     45,  253-257 

Walker,  T.  C,  conducts  devotional  ex- 
ercises       267 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  address  by 

319-326 

Washington,      collection      taken      for 
European  delegates  to  go  to   .   307 

Webb,  Geo.  T. :  presiding,  88 ;  presents 
resolutions     89 

White,  Dr.,  resolution  by   265 

Whitley,   W.   T.,   presiding,   332;    ad- 
dress  by    334 

Whitman,  B.  L.,  conducts  devotional 
exercises     306 

Wilde,    G.    de,    his    response    at    Roll 
Call,  Holland   50 

Wilkins,   F.   J.,   conducted   devotional 
exercises     243 

Williams, ,  his  response  at  Roll 

Call,   Jamaica    51 

Williams,    Mornay,    his    response    at 
Roll  Call,  Bahamas 38 

Willingham,  R.  J.,  address  by  143-147 

Wilson,  C.  E.,  address  by   .  .   276-280 

Women's    Committee,    formed    . .   358 

Yasnovsky,  Madame,  address  by 

171-175 

Yuille,    George,   his   response   at   Roll 
Call,   Scotland    27 


Date  Due 

'""^itf 

AP28'54 

^>«i«4»««^ 

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1 

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